Amtek Global Technologies, Singapore-based arm of Indian automobile parts maker Amtek Auto Ltd, has signed definitive agreement with alternative assets manager Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co (KKR) for a long-term loan facility of €235 million (around $293 million) to replace its existing bridge loan and consolidate all of the company's existing debt, according to a press release.
The loan facility would act as catalyst to help the company integrate its existing international operations under the Singapore-based Amtek Global Technologies.
“This long-term financing solution is a significant milestone for Amtek's international business. The flexibility it provides enables us to further scale our manufacturing platform and advance our global growth strategy to the benefit of our worldwide blue-chip customers and stakeholders,” Kunal Sabharwal, chief executive officer of Amtek Global Technologies, said.
Amtek Global operates through 19 manufacturing facilities across Germany, Italy, the UK, Brazil, Hungary, the US and Mexico. AGT produces high-technology products including turbochargers, precision camshafts, valve train components, conrods and safety fasteners. The company contributes close to 40 per cent of the Amtek Group's revenues.
Currently, Amtek Group, along with its subsidiaries, operates around 65 facilities in India, the UK, Germany, Brazil, Italy, Mexico, Russia and the US. It has global revenues of around $2.7 billion. In the recent past, the group has augmented its operations both organically and through strategic acquisitions.
BV Krishnan, a managing director at KKR's India office, said, "Members of KKR came together globally to provide this long-term solution to Amtek. We started this conversation in India and continued to have productive discussions in Europe and the Americas to explore ways of providing the best source of flexible capital as a complete solution to meet the company's needs."
KKR, a leading global investment firm that manages investments across multiple asset classes including private equity, has been actively backing Indian business houses through debt as well as equity funding.
Through its credit business, KKR looks to provide flexible, long-term capital which can help companies achieve their objectives of balance sheet consolidation, deleveraging and long-term growth. It provides structured financing solutions across junior debt, senior loans, mezzanine and direct lending through multiple capital pools.
KKR provides structured financing solutions through multiple capital pools, including a non-banking finance company, alternative investment funds and special situations capital pools. It has executed more than $2 billion of structured financing to 21 business groups in India through its credit and capital markets business over the past five years.
In May this year, Chennai-based industrial conglomerate Archean Group raised an undisclosed amount in mezzanine funding from KKR.
More recently, KKR signed a term sheet to provide Rs 1,000 crore ($164.2 million) of structured long-term financing, with unnamed co-investors, to GMR Holdings Pvt Ltd, a holding company of GMR Infrastructure Ltd (GIL). GMR Infrastructure has a huge debt pile and it is bringing it down by way of divestment of its assets besides fresh fundraising.
(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)
