Tata Motors gets $200-m loan from StanChart

When contacted, the Tata Motors spokesperson said: "You have referred to an internal document of Standard Chartered Bank. It is inappropriate for us to comment on this." In all, the company had taken $3 billion as bridge loan to finance the JLR acquisition in early 2008. It has repaid $1 billion, partly through funds raised from a rights issue last year.

Tata Motors has faced credit downgrades from a number of rating agencies, the latest being from Moody's last month. Standard Chartered has $450 m exposure to JLR According to media reports, Tata Motors is currently trying to get a bank guarantee from SBI - the first time a Tata company is looking for an external guarantee. Tata Motors has also reportedly raised at least Rs 1,000 crore from LIC in November at 11% to part-refinance the JLR bridge loan. Analysts have said the reason why Tata Motors is likely to continue to get credit at reasonable rates is because of the value of its collateral support. According to a Kotak research report, "Tata Sons has the financial flexibility to support group companies in extreme cases." The report pegs Tata Motors' incremental borrowing capacity at close to $2.3 billion, and adds that the company can raise another $400-500 million through stake sales in its subsidiaries.

Citigroup and JPMorgan were the lead managers to the original $3-billion bridge loan, which was raised with the help of other banks such as State Bank of India, Standard Chartered, BNP Paribas and Tokyo Mitsubishi UFH. Standard Chartered's existing loan exposure in JLR is $450 million and it has lent another $50 million to Tata Motors.