State Bank of India, the country’s largest commercial bank, on Thursday priced its maiden green bond issuance. Continuing its commitment towards sustainable development, SBI today raised $650 million at a coupon rate of T + 165 bps. The bond is benchmarked against five-year US treasury. The bonds will be listed on Singapore SGX and the India INX, Gift City.
The issue received an overwhelming response and saw strong interest from investors across geographies, with a final order book in excess of $1.25 billion across 114 accounts.
The successful issuance demonstrates the strong investor base SBI has created for itself in offshore capital markets, allowing it to efficiently raise funds from the world’s leading fixed income investors, even during periods of heightened currency and rates volatility.
Commenting on the development, Rajnish Kumar, Chairman, SBI said: “The bank has embarked on its sustainability journey with the objective to create a positive impact on the environment. Green Banking and Sustainability have long been areas of priority and in an early delineation of this approach, SBI had enunciated its Green Banking Policy a decade back. Issuance of green bond is one of the step in that direction. It gives us immense pleasure to see the response received from Global Fund managers to our issuance”
DBS Bank Ltd., HSBC, MUFG, FAB and SBI Capital Markets acted as joint book-runners and joint lead managers for this offering.