Essar Shipping to convert INR8bn of debt into dollar loans
India-based Essar Shipping is planning to convert around INR8bn ($146.3m) out of INR55bn debt into dollar loans to lower its interest burden, Seatrade Asia online reports.
“We are planning to convert around INR8bn of our rupee loans into dollar debt to pare our financing cost. We are talking to some domestic and foreign banks directly for this. We had INR55bn debt as of the September quarter,” said AR Ramakrishnan, managing director of Essar Shipping.
Essar Shipping has been trying to lower its debt as it faces cash flow issues due to the general slowdown in the shipping industry.
Ramakrishnan said the conversion of loan may take a couple of months and the objective is to convert some big ticket loans in the range of INR7bn to INR8bn into cheaper dollar loans.