The last six months have been like a trip to hell and back for Suzlon. There were shrinking orders and ballooning debt. Nothing was falling into place.
But now there are positive signs of recovery and Suzlon's lenders are providing a helping hand.
Can Tulsi Tanti, chairman of Suzlon Energy, breathe a little easy now? With his principal Indian lenders reworking his sky-high debt of over Rs 13,000 crore, probably he can.
NDTV learnt from sources that Indian lenders SBI, ICICI and IDBI have told Suzlon to transfer all its debt into a single company.
Currently the debt is scattered across 11 subsidiaries of Suzlon. It will all get consolidated into a single listed entity, Suzlon Energy.
"SBI is working on our debt. It’s not restructuring but we are optimising it," Tanti said.
What will help Tanti even more is the fact that lenders have also agreed to convert his $800 million outstanding bridge loan taken while acquiring Hansen and REpower into long term debt. ICICI, Barclays will convert $350 million of Hansen's outstanding debt, while Axis Bank, SBI and Bank of Baroda will convert $450 million of REpower debt that's outstanding.
The long-term loan will be for three years and will attract a Libor +450 basis points rate.
Besides, Axis Bank is offering a $100 million credit line that will help Suzlon buy the remaining nine per cent stake in Repower.
"The REpower stake is very, very crucial for 100 per cent synergy between the two companies and we are reworking all outstanding foreign debt," Tanti said.
For Tanti, finally the different pieces are slowly falling into place. Axis's credit line will help Tanti to integrate fully with Repower.
The total bill should come to round $130 million in today's price. Then comes Hansen and Tanti has already received a $1.3 billion bid from a consortium of Rabo Bank's PE arm and TPG.
Also in queue is Vestas and a German consortium, but Tanti is in no hurry.
"We will exit Hansen fully or partially. Both options are there," he said.
Meanwhile, the cash that would come in can wipe out nearly 50 per cent of Suzlon's total debt.
It will also come handy by 2013 when FCCBs worth $380 million get redeemed.
However, on a large scale Suzlon needs to get new orders to boost its topline and unless US and Europe gets out of its growth slumber, the short term pains will continue.