The largest private lender ICICI Bank has raised yuan 650 million in an offshore Chinese debt market offering, merchant bankers associated with the bond sale said. The bank raised the money by selling Reg S bonds with a three-year tenor and got a final pricing of 4 per cent, managing director and head of debt capital markets at Standard Chartered Bank South Asia Jujhar Singh has said.
The bank was successful in getting the coupon tightened to 4 per cent from the initial guidance of 4.125 per cent. The bond sale received subscriptions of Chinese yuan 1 billion, he added. The final issue was subscribed by 47 investors across Asia and Europe. Hong Kong contributed for 65 percent of the money, followed by Taiwan at 20 percent, Singapore at 10 percent and Europeans at 5 percent, he added.
This is the third issue by ICICI Bank and makes it the second domestic lender, after IDBI Bank, to sell bonds to offshore Chinese investors. After lying low for the past one month or so, domestic corporates are back to the overseas debt market, according to industry experts. Rating agency S&P had given a BBB- rating to the senior unsecured renminbi notes, which will be listed on the Singapore exchange. The rating reflects the long-term counter-party credit rating on the bank.
"The proposed notes will constitute direct, unconditional, unsecured and unsubordinated obligations of ICICI Bank. They shall, at all times, rank at par among themselves and with all other unsecured obligations of the bank. The proposed notes will be listed on the Singapore Exchange," S&P said in a statement from Singapore. Between January and April, over a dozen corporates went on an aggressive debt raising spree, netting a whopping USD 11 billion, led by the USD1.5-billion double issue by Bharti Airtel and a USD 800-million perpetual bond issue by Reliance Industries. During the year, Exim Bank raised nearly USD 1 billion in three instalments. Tata Communication, HDFC Bank and a clutch of public banks also raised foreign debts.
