Large Corporate Loans: Making Borrowing Proposals Bankable

The session opened with Mr. Chandrakant Salunkhe framing why project financing conversations in India need sharper discipline at the proposal stage itself, particularly as promoters in manufacturing and export-oriented sectors look at fresh capex cycles. Mr. K K Gupta then steered the discussion into the specifics — moving quickly past generalities to the questions bankers actually ask when a large proposal lands on their desk: is the project cost realistic, is the promoter's skin in the game meaningful, and does the implementation schedule hold up under scrutiny. Mr. Som Srivastava walked through how appraisal teams stress-test cost estimates and DPRs, flagging the assumptions that tend to unravel first — inflated capacity utilisation ramps, optimistic working capital cycles, and moratoriums that don't match the actual gestation of the project. Mr. Kishor Kharat brought the perspective of a former MD who has sat on sanction committees, and was direct about where proposals lose credibility: when promoter contribution is back-ended, when means of finance are not fully tied up, and when cash flow projections don't survive a downside scenario. His point that debt serviceability must be tested against a 15-20% revenue shortfall, not just base case, drew visible engagement from the CFOs on the call. Mr. Rikesh Chand spoke to the export finance angle, covering how EXIM Bank looks at overseas acquisition financing, buyer's credit structures, and the covenants that give lenders comfort on cross-border exposures. Mr. Yogesh Jain took the conversation into documentation and security — the areas where deals often stall between sanction and disbursement — including inter-creditor arrangements, security perfection timelines, and the drafting choices that later determine how much flexibility a borrower has if the project needs restructuring. The closing exchange turned to refinancing once a project stabilises: when to approach it, how to use the operating track record to renegotiate pricing and covenants, and why the strongest refinancing outcomes tend to be planned into the original structure rather than pursued reactively. For the promoters, CFOs and bankers on the call, the practical thread through the session was consistent — the bankability of a large loan is largely decided before it reaches appraisal, in the quality of the underlying preparation.