Stock market majors launch electronic book mechanism

Stock market majors -- BSE and the National Stock Exchange of India (NSE) -- on Friday launched the electronic book mechanism (EBM) for issuance of debt securities on private placement.

The BSE launched its "BSE BOND" for issuance of debt securities on private placement basis.

"The first placement of bond through BSE BOND was raised by HDB Financial Services Limited with an issue size of Rs 100 crore, which was fully subscribed," the BSE said in a statement.

The NSE too successfully launched its electronic bidding platform -- NSE-EBP. LIC Housng Finance became the first issuer on the platform. It raised around Rs 435 crore through the newly-launched platform.

"This is a globally unique concept. The NSE-EBP platform is a milestone towards developing the private placements market for debt securities," said Mukesh Agarwal, Group Head -- MF and IPO, NSE and Chief Executive- IISL and DotEx.

"We have received overwhelming response and more than expected number of bids. LIC Housing Finance opted for this despite that fact they were not mandatorily required."

According to the NSE, the new initiative will help in the development of the corporate bond market and is aimed at enhancing transparency and efficiency in the price discovery in the debt private placement market.

"This platform is an outcome of the budget announcement earlier this year and the subsequent guidelines released by SEBI on April 21, 2016," the NSE statement said.

Earlier, the capital market regulator had approved stock market majors for launch of EBM for issuance of debt securities on private placement.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) allowed the key stock markets to carry out EBM under the provisions of an earlier issued circular dated April 21, 2016.

--IANS

rv/dg