Air India arm raises Rs 7,000 cr via bond issue, to help carrier pare debt

Air India Assets Holdings Ltd (AIAHL) on Monday raised Rs 7,000 crore through bonds issue, which was oversubscribed.

AIAHL is a special purpose vehicle of national carrier Air India.

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

An Air India spokesperson on Monday said AIAHL's bond issue with a three-year tenure of Rs 1,000 crore with a green shoe option of Rs 6,000 crore has been fully subscribed at 6.99 per cent.

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

Last week, PTI reported that AIAHL would come out with its bonds issue worth Rs 7,000 crore on September 16.