Bharti Airtel raises $500 mn through bond issue

The money will be used to pay off high interest loans and fund capex needs

Barely a month after raising $1 billion, Bharti Airtel today raised another $500 million through senior notes, primarily to pay off high interest loans and fund capital expenditure requirements. “Bharti Airtel International (Netherlands) BV has successfully raised $500 million notes (additional notes) in addition to the recently-concluded transaction of $1 billion 5.125 per cent Fixed Rate Senior Unsecured Guaranteed 144A/Reg S Notes due 2023,” the company said in a statement.

The additional notes were issued at a premium and priced at 100.625 per cent to yield 5.044 per cent and will be consolidated and form a single series along with the $1 billion notes that were issued on March 11.

“High participation by fund managers for an Indian issuance and real money investor participation of 77 per cent demonstrates the superior quality of the order book and the confidence the global investors have in the fundamentals and credit of the company,” said Harjeet Kohli, group treasurer of Bharti. According to the company, the transaction is the first issuance out of India this year, making it largest single tranche issuance in 2013 so far.

The transaction drew an order book of about $2 billion with participation from 140 high-quality investor accounts. “In terms of geographic distribution, 50 per cent of additional notes were distributed in the US, 32 per cent in Europe and 18 per cent in Asia. The notes were distributed to high-quality fixed income accounts across fund managers, banks, sovereign wealth funds/insurance companies and private banks,” said Bharti.

Barclays, BNP, Citigroup, DB, HSBC, Standard Chartered and UBS were the joint book runners and lead managers for the issue.

So far in 2013, Indian companies such as Reliance Industries, PowerGrid, Tata Communications, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Exim Bank, Bharti Airtel, and Suzlon Energy have raised about $6 billion from overseas debt markets.