No problem in raising Rs 700 cr through bonds: L&T Infra

L&T Infrastructure Finance today said it does not see any problem in raising Rs 700 crore through long-term tax saving infrastructure bonds in the wake of a host of lucrative issues by companies such as Coal India and IDFC.

"I do not think there could be any problem in raising money just because of it (funds being raised by other organisations)," company's Vice-President G K Shettigar told reporters here today when asked whether investors will be keen to invest in its bonds at a time when they have other options like Coal India, IDFC bonds and SBI bonds to invest money.

There are other issues which are in the market including country's largest IPO of Coal India closing tomorrow, IDFC's Rs 3,400 crore bond issue and SBI's Rs 1,000 crore bond issue which will close on October 22 and October 25 respectively.
    
Describing its tax saving infrastructure bonds as investor friendly, Shettigar said that the company timed its infrastructure bond issue while keeping in mind the salary and other festival incentives accruing to people during the later part of October. "We kept the period of our issue when people are going to get their salaries and Diwali bonus so people could invest in the same," he said.
    
He also said that the purchase parity of people in the country has increased manifold which will give fillip to fund raising issues by companies or other organisations.
     
L&T Infrastructure Finance is looking to raise Rs 700 crore in its maiden tax saving infrastructure bond issue which opened on October 15 till November 2.
    
However, Shettigar said the figure related to actual subscription of its bond issue has not come up. "We hope in next two days, we will be able to tell about subscription of our issue," he said.
    
In this issue, people investing up to Rs 20,000 would be eligible for deduction in computation of taxable income, he said. The proceeds from bonds would be utilised for financing infrastructure project including power, telecom, port, oil and gas, roads, telecom etc.
    
Promoted by Larsen & Toubro in April 2006, L&T Infrastructure is a non-deposit taking NBFC and it is engaged in providing financial products and services for customers involved in infrastructure development, roads etc. It has assets under its management of Rs 4,400 crore.