Milbank has advised Korea Trade Insurance Corporation (“K-sure”), HSBC Bank plc as the ECA arranger and the facility agent, and the participating commercial banks in a US$750 million facility for Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited (“Reliance Jio”).  Reliance Jio is an Indian internet provider who is constructing a pan India telecom infrastructure to provide fourth generation 4G LTE TDD high speed wireless internet and mobile communication services which is to be launched in 2015.  The facility is guaranteed by Reliance Industries Limited and comprises a K-sure covered facility of US$750 million to be advanced by the commercial banks (The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Ltd., Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd., Banco Santander, S.A., The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Ltd., JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., Mizuho Bank, Ltd., Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, ING Bank and DZ Bank AG).

This is the first facility by K-sure with Reliance Jio and is believed to be the single largest bilateral loan by K-sure into India.  The loan will have a 10-year tenure, in addition to two years over which it can be drawn; the proceeds of which will be used to finance purchases of goods and services from Samsung Electronics and Ace Technologies Corp., the Mukesh Ambani-owned company.  As part of an aggressive rollout planned by Reliance Jio, Samsung are producing custom-built Wi-Fi signal-emitting devices which will enable customers to connect to the internet using Wi-Fi.

The Milbank deal team was led out of the firm’s London office by Global Project Finance partner, John Dewar with assistance from associates, Munib Hussain and Philip Benger. Partner YJ Kim and senior associate Bong-Sang Cho also advised from Milbank’s newly opened Seoul office.

John Dewar said “we are very excited to be part of the India 4G mobile revolution and to have advised K-sure and the banks on this landmark cross border financing into India.”

The loan represents the second round of financing for Reliance Jio from Korean ECAs.  John Dewar alongside partner YJ Kim, partner in the Seoul office and senior associate Oliver Irwin advised the Export-Import Bank of Korea in the first round of financing for Reliance Jio which closed in November 2014.