Air India's bond issue of Rs 1,000 crore fully subscribed on first day

The bond issue of Air India Assets Holding Ltd (AIAHL) with a three-year tenure of Rs 1,000 crore and a greenshoe option of Rs 6,000 crore was been fully subscribed at the rate of 6.99 per cent on Monday.

The company received bids worth Rs 20,830 crore which is the highest in yield-based bond market in the history of BSE Ltd. The company has decided to accept the entire issue of Rs 7,000 crore.

A greenshoe option is an over-allotment option that grants the underwriter the right to sell investors more shares than initially planned by the issuer if the demand for a security issue proves higher than expected.

AIAHL -- a special purpose vehicle of national carrier Air India -- is planning to issue bonds worth Rs 22,000 crore with different tenures in coming weeks.

Air India has a debt burden of more than Rs 58,000 crore. As part of efforts to clean up the balance sheet, it has planned to repay a little over half of the amount by way of proceeds from the issuance of bonds.

Banks and mutual funds are expected to participate when AIAHL issues 10-year bonds worth Rs 15,000 crore, reports say. When AIAHL was set up last year, the plan was to transfer Rs 29,464 crore of Air India's debt to the special purpose vehicle.

In February, the Cabinet gave its ex-post facto approval for the creation of AIAHL and associated activities for disinvestment of Air India and its subsidiaries and joint ventures.