The country's third largest private lender Axis Bank had on Wednesday announced that it has raised $250 million in Dubai via a bond issue from its existing tap of 3.250 per cent Senior Unsecured Notes maturing in 2020.
The bonds are issued by Axis Bank’s DIFC branch, Dubai and are rated Baa2 by Moody's, BBB- by S&P and BBB- by Fitch.
"The notes (bonds) have been issued at a price of 101.461 to yield 2.944%. The notes will be denominated in US dollars, and will bear a fixed interest of 3.250% per annum, with interest payable semi-annually in arrears," Axis Bank said in a statement.
Axis Bank will utilise the net proceeds to meet the funding requirement of its foreign branches and for general corporate purposes, the statement said.
Initial price guidance
The deal was launched at an initial price guidance of US Treasuries + 150 bps. The final order book of investors was in excess of $1.25 billion with strong participation from Asia, West Asia and Europe. On the back of strong investor response, the guidance was tightened by 15 bps to T +135 bps, the bank said.
The issue was oversubscribed more than 5 times, with investors from Asia contributing 63 per cent, Europe 15 per cent, and West Asia 22 per cent.
According to Axis Bank, the spread over US Treasuries of 135 bps makes the deal the tightest issue by an Indian bank in the recent past.
Bank of America Merill Lynch, Citibank, HSBC and Standard Chartered acted as joint book-runners and lead managers.