IRFC garners $500 mn through green offshore bonds; lists bonds at GIFT City

Indian Railway Finance Corporation Limited (IRFC), the dedicated market borrowing arm of the Indian Railways, has raised USD 500 million (about Rs 3,500 crore) through issuance of green offshore bonds.

IRFC is the first Central Public Sector Enterprise (CPSE) to list its offshore bonds exclusively at Indian stock exchanges established in the GIFT City, Gandhinagar.

The bonds issuance is part of the USD 7 billion Global Medium Term Note (GMTN) Programme, IRFC said in a statement on Monday.

The bonds were issued in a single tranche of 10-year and the order book was over-subscribed to the tune of 2.4 times.

"In the current highly uncertain volatile conditions, the bonds have been priced very tightly over the 10-year benchmark UST on account of superior credit quality of IRFC. Even in volatile market conditions this year, IRFC managed to price the deal at negligible new issue concession over their existing secondary," it said.

Sovereign Funds, Investment Funds, Pension Funds, Insurance Funds, Asset Management Companies, Banks and Hedge Funds spread across the globe were among the investors.

"IRFC's USD 144A/Reg S Bonds are Green Bonds issued under IRFC's Green Framework for Green Debt Financing with exclusive listing being done at INX and NSE-IFSC," it said.

"IRFC's return to the bond market and the overwhelming support from international investors underscores the confidence in IRFC as the premier quasi-sovereign issuer in the country," the company's Chairman and Managing Director Amitabh Banerjee said.

The funds raised would be utilised for green end uses and will help Indian Railways in meeting its target of carbon neutrality as well as the wider targets set by the government to meet the emission and carbon norms decided in COP26, it added.