The World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) has proposed a loan of up to $50 million (Rs 354 crore) for Rabobank to help the Dutch cooperative bank fund climate-smart agriculture and renewable energy projects in India.
Climate-smart agriculture is an integrated approach to managing landscapes—cropland, livestock, forests and fisheries--that addresses the interlinked challenges of food security and climate change, going by the World Bank's website.
Rabobank’s Mumbai branch and IFC were in talks to strengthen knowledge of selected agriculture value chain players in India, the World Bank's arm said in a disclosure.
The Mumbai branch provides project finance, working capital and term loans to corporates in the country. It deals in international wholesale banking activities with domestic as well as Dutch clients operating in India.
Founded in 1895, Rabobank is a Dutch cooperative bank focused on domestic retail banking in the country and food and agribusiness markets worldwide.
Rabobank merged its local subsidiaries Rabo India Finance Ltd and Rabo India Securities Pvt Ltd about four years ago to focus more on merchant banking and advisory services.
IFC has an active LP (limited partner) portfolio in India and makes direct private equity-style investments as well as lends to companies in the country.
Earlier in the month, it committed an equity investment of up to $15 million in an India-focused clean energy fund managed by GEF Capital Partners.
Prior to that, it invested up to $40 million in the third fund of Baring Private Equity Asia’s India-focused credit platform.