The loan agreement will finance solar power projects in India under Indo-German Solar Partnership
by Suman Gupta
Mumbai, November 16, 2022: State Bank of India (SBI), the country’s largest lender, has signed a EUR 150 million (~INR 1240 Crores) loan agreement with KfW, the German development bank. The loan agreement was signed by Shri S. Salee, DMD & CCO, on November 8, 2022, in Frankfurt, Germany, in the presence of Shri. Ashwini Kumar Tewari, MD, Risk, Compliance and SARG, SBI. This long-term loan will facilitate new & upcoming capacity in the solar sector and further contribute to India’s “Panchamrit” goals announced during COP26.
On this occasion, Mr. Ashwini Tewari, MD, SBI said “The successful closure of phase-1 under Solar Partnership – Promotion of Solar/PV between SBI and KFW, paves the way for the current phase-2 in our partnership with KfW. With the signing of this facility, we have taken another step in the direction of sustainable financing arrangements for meeting our country’s ambitious renewable capacity goals and upholding environmental and social standards in our endeavours”.
The arrangement of the loan was facilitated by SBI’s investment banking subsidiary, SBI Capital Markets.
In 2015, the Government of India and the Federal Republic of Germany had signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to foster the use of solar energy in India through technical as well as financial cooperation. Through this MOU, Germany had expressed its willingness to provide the concessional loans to India in the range of EUR 1 billion through KfW.
About State Bank of India:State Bank of India is the largest commercial bank in terms of assets, deposits, branches, customers, and employees. SBI has 22,309 branches and 65,796 ATMs / ADWMs in India with 66,757 BC outlets. As on September 30, 2022, the bank has a deposit base of over Rs. 41.90 lakh crore and advances of more than Rs. 30 lakh crore. It is also the largest mortgage lender in the country which has so far fulfilled the home buying dreams of over 30 lakh Indian families. SBI commands a market share of 32.9% and 19.2% in home loans and auto loans respectively. The number of customers using internet banking and mobile banking stand at 107 million and 54 million respectively. With SBI’s digital strategy right on track – the bank witnessed 63% of new savings accounts opened through the integrated digital and lifestyle platform YONO in FY23. SBI observed 23,200 new digital savings bank accounts being opened per day via YONO in the quarter ended September 2022. YONO, which has 5.44 crore registered users, witnessed 72.75 lakh customer visiting YONO Shop & Order in Q2 FY23. SBI also has the highest number of followers on Facebook and Twitter amongst all banks worldwide.
