FSC borrows around $87m locally

Within a span of 10 months, the Fiji Sugar Corporation borrowed around $87 million from local institutions including the Fiji National Provident Fund.

In a market update to the South Pacific Stock Exchange on its proceeds of secured loans, the FSC revealed that it borrowed $44 million from the FNPF, $22. 5 million from the Reserve Bank of Fiji, $19 million from the Bank of Baroda and $1.4 million from the Bank of South Pacific between June 1st 2009 and April 30th 2010.

During the same period, the FSC also borrowed $4.2 million from the Exim Bank of India taking its total borrowing to $91.1 million.

For the local borrowing, the interest rate charged on FSC ranges from 10% to 8.3 percent.

In an earlier market announcement, it was revealed that the FSC recorded a net loss of 8.3 million dollars for the third quarter ended 28th February 2010.

The report showed that FSC's liabilities increased by around $55.5 million, however the FSC states in its report that no loans were secured during the third quarter ending 28th February 2010.

When contacted FSC CEO Deo Saran said the Stock Exchange did not require the details of why these funds were borrowed and details will be provided in their annual report.