UPDATE 1-Mexican tortilla maker Gruma says it obtained $125 mln loan

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MEXICO CITY, Sept 27 (Reuters) - Mexican tortilla-maker Gruma has obtained a $125 million loan it will use to refinance existing liabilities, it said in a statement on Tuesday.

The five-year loan from the Bank of Nova Scotia will help the company improve its cost of debt, the statement added.

Gruma, founded in 1949, ranks among the world's biggest producers of corn flour and tortillas. In July it announced a credit line for up to $150 million for general corporate uses.

In a quarterly earnings report that same month, the company said it would focus on expanding tortilla production worldwide while growing profits and limiting the effects of inflation.

Its end-June debt, for the most part denominated in U.S. dollars, amounted to $1.7 billion, it said in the report, up 4% from three months earlier.

In February, Gruma suspended operations at a plant in Ukraine after Russia's invasion of the major grain exporting country halted commercial shipping. (Reporting by Valentine Hilaire and Sarah Morland; Editing by David Gregorio)