Bengaluru : 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.