ICICI Bank raises $100 mn through Chinese Yuan bonds

ICICI Bank, the country’s largest privates sector lender, has raised Chinese yuan 600 million ($100 million) by selling Regulation S (Reg S) bonds to investors. The bank acted through its Bahrain branch for this bond issuance.

The coupon rate of these bonds were four per cent and the tenure was three years. Global rating agency Standard and Poor’s has assigned a ‘BBB- rating to the bond whereas Moody’s has assigned a ‘Baa2’. The bonds will be listed on the Singapore stock exchange. The bonds are a part of the global medium-term notes programme of the bank worth around $7.5 billion.

Standard Chartered Bank and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Services were the merchant bankers for the issue.

Reg S bonds are offered to non-US residents and qualified institutional buyers under an exception to US securities laws enacted in 1990, and do not enjoy the same legal protection as other issues.

In this financial year, the lender has already raised $750 million before Friday’s issue. So far, this is the fourth instance when the bank has raised money by issuing Chinese yuan bond.

People familiar with the development said that the bank raised money via Chinese currency as the pricing was currently attractive.