JBIC ready for addl $500-mn disbursal to SBI

New Delhi: The Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) has disbursed $1.5 billion to SBI to finance Maruti Suzuki's supply and value chain in the country, and it is ready to facilitate $500 million more, a key official of the Japan government's funding agency said.

JBIC is a policy-based financial institution of Japan, and conducts lending, investment and guarantee operations while complementing private sector financial institutions. Since the first wave of the pandemic, JBIC has committed $8 billion investment in India of which $5 billion is for acquisition financing along with commercial banks, Toshihiko Kurihara, Chief Representative, Representative Office in New Delhi, JBIC said in an interaction.

"We have $2 billion financial (commitment) to State Bank of India (SBI) towards financing of Maruti Suzuki's supply and value chain. We already disbursed $1 billion in November-December 2020 and additional $500 million is done. We have additional limitation of $500 million.

We are prepared to finance the additional $500 million," Kurihara said. As its mandate, he said JBIC can only finance those projects and investments where Japanese companies are involved. "JBIC is trying to fund as much Japan-related projects in India. That's the first (requirement) because without the Japanese involvement, we are not allowed to finance any projects. We helped acquisition financing for Nippon Steel to acquire Essar Steel," he added.