Axis Bank raises Rs 5,705 crore in infra bonds

Country's third largest private sector lender Axis Bank today raised Rs 5,705 crore in infrastructure bonds in a single-largest closure since the instrument was introduced in July.
The senior unsecured redeemable non-convertible debentures have a maturity of 20 years and carry coupon of 8.85 per cent payable annually and will be allotted to the eligible investors tomorrow, the bank said in a statement.
The city-based bank said the issue received very strong demand from pensions and provident funds, multilateral financial institutions, mutual funds, foreign financial institutions and insurers.
It can be noted that the World Bank group member IFC had announced that a significant part of a Rs 2,000-crore rupee bond raised by it will be invested for Axis Bank's upcoming infrastructure bond.

"We are pleased to have received a very good response for the infrastructure bonds from the domestic as well as foreign investors," bank's president for treasury, business banking and capital markets Sidharth Rath said.
He further said though the issue was launched immediately after a USD 500-million international bond offering by the bank last month, it received good response.
The Reserve Bank had in July issued the guidelines allowing banks to raise long-term money to fund longer gestation infrastructure projects.
Axis' larger rival ICICI Bank was among the first ones to tap the opportunity offered by the new regulation by raising Rs 3,900 crore by selling 10-year paper at a semi-annualised rate of 9.25 percent.