Suzlon repays acquisition loan

Suzlon Energy repaid US$780mn (around Rs37bn) acquisition loan. This has also made the company achieve a net reduction in overall debt by US$350mn (around Rs17bn). The payment was made from proceeds of a partial stake sale in Hansen Transmissions International NV, in addition to a new five-year US dollar denominated loan of US$465mn (around Rs21.9bn) from State Bank of India (SBI). The company did not elaborate on the loans that have been repaid. But the firm had raised finances to acquire Hansen and Germany’s Repower Systems. "This transaction concludes the first phase of our refinancing exercise. We have achieved an overall improvement in our debt profile, with reduction of nearly 15%. We continue to work towards optimising our capital structure," said Sumant Sinha, COO of Suzlon Energy. The company in is filing to the stock exchanges said that the new five-year US$456mn loan provides for a two-year moratorium on repayments of principal as well as two-year holiday on debt covenants.