HDFC plans Rs 6,000 crore bond issue to shore up long-term resources

The country's largest mortgage lender Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC) will raise up to Rs 6,000 crore by issuing bonds on a private placement basis to augment its long term resources.

The bonds in the nature of secured redeemable non-convertible debentures (NCDs) have a base issue size of Rs 3,000 crore with the option to retain oversubscription up to Rs 3,000 crore, HDFC said in a regulatory filing on Monday.

"The object of the issue is to augment the long-term resources of the Corporation. The proceeds of the present issue would be utilised for financing/refinancing the housing finance business requirements of the Corporation," it said.

The three-year tenor bonds rated 'AAA' by Crisil and Icra will be up for redemption on September 30, 2024.

The bids for subscription will open on September 29, 2021, and close on the same day.

HDFC said the coupon rate on the bonds would be payable at a fixed spread of 80 basis points (0.80 per cent) over the benchmark that will be reset on a quarterly basis.

The benchmark will be a three-month T-bill (treasury bill) as published by FBIL and sourced from Bloomberg, it added. If Bloomberg data is not available, the simple average of FBIL 3-months T-bills closing rate, as published by Financial Benchmarks India Pvt Ltd (FBIL) may be recognised with certain parameters.

The first such quarterly setting of the coupon rate for September 30, 2021, would be 4.13 per cent per annum, HDFC said. Shares of HDFC closed flat at Rs 2841.10 apiece on BSE.