Bank of India mops up $500-mn via bond issue

Taking a cue from its bigger counterparts like State Bank of India and ICICI Bank, Government-owned lender, Bank of India has tapped the international market to raise $500-million through a bond issue.

The bank today said that it raised $500-million under its Medium Term Notes (MTN) programme at an interest rate of 4.75 per cent. The bonds have been swapped into a floating rate of 175 basis points above Libor.

An MTN programme allows an issuer to raise funds on an ongoing basis through various products such as floating rate notes or on a fixed rate after obtaining prior regulatory and other approvals.

With this, Bank of India has so far raised $1 billion under its $2-billion MTN programme, which was launched in 2005.

The lender had approached international investors with its roadshow in February this year for the $500-million issue but later deferred it for sometime as market conditions were not favourable.

The book size of the issue was $4 billion and orders were spread over 300 quality investors, the bank said.

Yesterday, leading private sector lender, Axis Bank, said that it has raised $350 million through a bond issue,under its $2-billion Euro Medium Term Note programme.

Other lenders, which have tapped the MTN route to raise funds include State Bank of India and ICICI Bank.

State Bank has so far raised $2.9 billion under its MTN programme while its nearest competitor ICICI Bank raised $750 million last year.

Government-owned IDBI Bank is also understood to have plans to go for an MTN issue, under which it plans to raise around $1.5 billion.