ICICI Bank raises $300 million through bond sale

Country's largest private sector lender ICICI Bank today said it has raised USD 300 million through a international bond issue.

The 5.5 year fixed rate notes were issued by the bank's branch in Dubai International Finance Centre (DIFC) and carry a coupon of 3.25 per cent, it said in a statement.

The notes were sold under the RegS format and were offered at an issue price of 99.447, it said.

The bank had given a pricing guidance of up to 155 bps over the US treasury which is around 2 per cent, and the 3.25 per cent coupon reflects an ability to compress the pricing.

The bank had launched the issue, which was a part of its USD 7.5 billion medium-term notes programme, yesterday and the money raised through such offerings is generally used for international lending.

Global rating agencies S&P and Moody's had rated the proposed senior unsecured notes at BBB- and Baa3, respectively.

Assigning BBB- rating to the debt instrument, S&P said the rating on the notes reflects the long-term issuer credit rating on the largest private sector bank in the country.

Moody's Investors Service said the Baa3 rating to the proposed RegS notes issued under its USD 7.5 billion MTN programme will have a maturity of 5.5 years and will be listed on the Singapore Stock Exchange.

Since the past two years, debt raising by domestic companies have been on a low gear given the poor investment climate here. Nearly half a dozen companies raised around USD 1.82 billion from overseas markets in January this year.

Out of this, USD 1.40 billion were foreign debt in January and the rest were funds raised via rupee-denominated bonds, according to the Reserve Bank data.

While Rural Electrification Corporation raised USD 400 million for on-lending under the ECB route, NTPC mopped up USD 531.2 million and Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone raised USD 500 million.