Mumbai : State Bank of India, acting through its London
branch, has announced the conclusion of successful pricing of USD 500 million
of “Regulation S” bonds at a coupon rate of 5.25 per cent. The bond is
benchmarked against the 5yr US Treasury and priced at a spread of 88 bps over
the benchmark. The bonds will be listed on SGX-ST, India INX and NSE-IX.
The transaction received an overwhelming
response and saw strong interest from investors across geographies with a peak
orderbook of USD 2.46 billion with 145 investors. On the basis of strong
investor demand, the price guidance was revised from T+120 bps area to T+88 bps
resulting in price compression of 32 bps. The Notes will carry rating of BBB, BBB-
and BBB+/Stable from S&P, Fitch and CareEdge Global respectively.
Commenting on the transaction, Shri Challa Sreenivasulu Setty, Chairman,
SBI said “The
successful pricing of USD 500 million, during the ongoing global uncertainities,
is a testament to the strong appetite for bonds of SBI and to the diversified investor
base the Bank has in offshore capital markets, allowing it to efficiently raise
funds from the leading global fixed income investors. The issue has priced at
the tightest spread among all Indian public bond issuances since the RBI swap
window announcement and reflects the confidence of the global investors in
India’s growth story in general and credit quality of SBI in particular. The tight
pricing achieved amid the evolving global macro environment has demonstrated containment
in the borrowing cost for issuers from India. ”
BNP PARIBAS, Citigroup, Crédit Agricole CIB, Emirates NBD Bank PJSC, HSBC
(B&D), MUFG, and Standard Chartered Bank were the Joint Bookrunners for
this offering.