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South Africa's Transnet gets 30 billion rand loan from Chinese bank
Railway tracks are seen near Moses Mabhida stadium in Durban in a file photo. PHOTO BY REUTERS/Rogan Ward
04/06/2015
CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - State-owned logistics and freight firm Transnet will pocket a 30 billion rand ($2 billion) loan from the China Development Bank to improve its ageing train fleet, its acting chief executive said on Thursday.
Siyabonga Gama told a news conference on sidelines of World Economic Forum for Africa in Cape Town that 18 billion rand of the loan had already been transferred to the state utility.
"The repayment of the loan is 15 years with a grace period of four-and-a-half years while the locomotives are under construction," Gama said
Transnet said it had now secured 92 percent of the 50 billion rand required for its 1,062 locomotive build programme, which it says will help the company grow its volumes to 350 million tonnes from 210 million tonnes in the next seven years.
Barclays Africa, Investec, Standard Bank, Old Mutual and Export Development Bank are some of the other funders of the improvement project, which will focus on building new infrastructure in harbour city Durban as well as inland capital Pretoria.
Transnet plans to invest over 300 billion rand by 2019 to expand the railways, ports and pipelines that handle commodities in Africa's most advanced economy
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