Axis Bank hits overseas debt market with USD 200-mn bond sale

Country's third-largest private sector lender Axis Bank today hit the international debt market with a USD 200 million tap issue on its existing USD 500 million senior notes issued last November.
According to i-banking sources, the bank is raising the 10-year fund through its Dubai International Financial Centre branch via dollar-denominated senior unsecured notes.
It is a follow-on issue to its November's issue when it had raised USD 500 million at 3.25 percent in a 10-year money, the sources added.
The sources also said that the issue has hit the international markets today and will close after the European markets hours. The price guidance could not be ascertained.

Meanwhile, in a note, international rating agency Moody's gave the issue a Baa2 rating with stable outlook and said that the existing rating does not change with the additional borrowing.
The tap bond offering has the same terms and conditions as the existing notes, it added.

The Baa2 rating reflects the status of the bank as the third-largest private sector bank by assets and its sizable retail deposit franchise and importance to the national payments system and also its baseline credit assessment of Baa3.
The rating for the proposed notes is in-line with the bank's global local currency deposit rating.

In a note, another rating agency Standard & Poor's gave a BBB- rating to the issue and said it is not affected by the bank's proposal to upsize the issue.
The notes will be consolidated with the bank's existing USD 500 million 3.25 per cent notes due 2020, which the bank issued on November 21, 2014.
The rating on the notes reflects the long-term counterparty credit rating on the bank, the agency said.