Cos' debt sale dips 19.5% to $52b;overseas bonds up 60% at$16b

India Inc raised USD 51.8 billion in debt during 2013 through primary bond sales, 19.5 per cent down from the record USD 64.3 billion in the previous year.
The offshore US dollar-denominated bond sale by domestic companies touched a record USD 12 billion, up 47 per cent after surpassing last year's record annual volume of USD 8.1 billion, according to a report.
According to investment bankers, the overall international debt raising (including non-USD raising) by domestic firms touched a new high of USD 15.8 billion, up from USD 10 billion the preceding calendar year.
Telecom major Bharti led the pack, raising USD 2.25 billion in overseas bonds, followed by Reliance (USD 800 million in a perpetual bond sale), ICICI Bank (close to a USD 1 billion in multiple currencies), SBI (USD 750 million), Exim Bank over USD 1 billion in multiple currencies, HDFC (USD 500 million).

Debts raised during the October-December quarter touched USD 11.1 billion, a jump of 147.6 per cent on sequential basis from the third quarter, but down 32.6 per cent from the year-ago period, as per Thomson Reuters report.
According to fee estimates by Thomson Reuters, i-bankers raked in USD 98.1 million in fees in the year, which is a 22.2 per cent decline from the previous year.

The report further said, the majority of bond sales were issued by the financial sector players capturing 65.9 per cent of the market share worth USD 34.2 billion in proceeds, but this too is down 26.9 per cent from the previous year.

Energy and power companies occupy the second slot raising USD 7.2 billion, down 7.1 per cent from 2012, accounting for 13.9 per cent of the market share.
Notably, telcos saw a significant increase in proceeds this year with USD 3.6 billion raised from 8 new bond sales compared to USD 287.9 million from two issues in 2012.