NTPC's tax-free bond issue to open tomorrow

Country's largest power producer NTPC today said its bond issue to raise up to Rs 1,750 crore will open tomorrow.

This is the state-run company's first bond issue after a gap of over 20 years.

"The issue will open on December 3, 2013, and is scheduled to close on December 16, 2013," NTPC CMD Arup Roy Choudhury told reporters here at a company's conference.

Under the offer, the company will issue tax-free secured redeemable non-convertible bonds.

"The base issue size aggregates to Rs 1,000 crore with an option to retain over-subscription up to Rs 750 crore for issuance of additional bonds, aggregating to up to Rs 1,750 crore," the company said.

The funds raised through the issue would be utilised towards funding of capital expenditure and refinancing for meeting the debt requirement in ongoing projects.

The company, last month, filed a prospectus with the Registrar of Companies (RoC), Delhi and Haryana and shall file the Prospectus with the BSE, NSE and SEBI (Securities and Exchange Board of India) in connection with its proposed public issue of tax-free secured redeemable non-convertible bonds, NTPC said.

The lead managers to the issue are ICICI Securities, A K Capital Services, Axis Capital, SBI Capital Markets and Kotak Mahindra Capital Company.

Currently, NTPC has a capacity of nearly 42,000 MW and targets to add about 14,000 MW to its total capacity by the end of 2016-17.

Shares of NTPC were trading at Rs 148.45 apiece, up 0.75% on the BSE