State Bank of India (SBI) has tapped the overseas bond market to raise anywhere between $ 750 million to $ 1 billion through sale of bonds.
The unsecured Notes—a debt instrument—is proposed to be issued through SBI’s London branch and will be listed on the Singapore stock exchange, sources in the banking industry said.
“The road shows are currently on. There will be two tranches with the first one expected to mature in 2019 and the other in 2024”.
Moody’s Investors Service has assigned a Baa3 rating with stable outlook for the US dollar denominated senior unsecured notes.
SBI’s offshore bond sale is the second by an Indian issuer in the last few days and a clear pointer to the rising confidence in the Indian economy among foreign investors, say economy watchers.
The Centre currently holds 58.6 percent stake in SBI, the country’s largest commercial bank.
Another state-owned company Oil India Ltd had raised $ 1 billion on Tuesday to repay a bridge loan taken to acquire foreign assets.
Foreign investors are lapping up Indian bonds amid expectations that Bharatiya Janata Party led national democratic alliance would return to power and provide a stable government at the Centre.
With strong market conditions, Indian issuers are taking full advantage of the situation to raise overseas debt and not wait for the outcome of the general elections, industry observers said.
ICICI Bank, the country’s largest private sector bank had recently raised $ 138.2 million in Australian debt for tenure of five years.