Companies raise Rs 78,000 cr via bonds on BSE e-book platform

Companies have raised nearly Rs 78,000 crore through issuance of debt securities on private placement basis on BSE's electronic book mechanism in less than four months since the launch of platform.

The platform — BSE-BOND — was launched on July 1 to facilitate online bidding for private placement of debt securities. Since then, 35 companies have raised Rs 77,955 crore through the exchange mechanism.

"The BSE platform for bond issuances has been a preferred choice for companies to raise debt capital in India. Till October 17, 2016, 35 issuers have done 148 issues of bonds and have successfully raised Rs 77,955 crore using the BSE debt platform," the exchange said in a statement.

Individually, Axis Bank garnered Rs 5,000 crore and Power Finance Corporation mopped up Rs 4,335 crore by issuing bonds through private placement on the BSE BOND platform.

Besides, Energy Efficiency Services and Nabard (National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development) raked in Rs 500 crore each.

The funds have been raised from various sources, including banks, mutual funds, insurance companies, foreign portfolio investors and corporates, among others.

The platform, which allows all categories of investors to place bids, helps bring in transparency and efficiency in price discovery for private placement of debt securities.

It is optional for issues below Rs 500 crore, but the issuers will have to disclose coupon, yield, amount raised, number of investors and category of investors to the electronic book provider or the information repository for corporate debt market in the format as specified by the Securities and Exchange Board of India.