JSW Steel raises $500 mn via international bond issue: Regulatory filing

The country's largest private sector steel-maker JSW Steel Wednesday raised $500 million through an international bond issue. The five-year dollar money sale saw high demand from investors across Europe and Asia, and had attracted bids worth $1.75 billion, merchant banking sources said.

The company, which is rated one notch below the investment grade, managed a coupon of 5.95 per cent, they said. The issue had received Ba2 rating with a positive outlook by global ratings agency Moody's.

The fund raising was in line with a May 2017 board resolution to raise up to $1 billion in one or more tranches of international bond sales, the company informed the exchanges.

The company, which has an installed capacity of 18 million tonne, is intending to use the proceeds to retire debt and also for capital expenditure, according to Moody's.

"Even after strong re-opening of international bond markets for Indian high yield issuers, the response to JSW Steel has been overwhelming," Amrish Baliga, the managing director and head financing at Deutsche Bank, the lead- arranger, said.