E-book platform for corp debt launched, firms raise Rs 535 cr

Top exchanges BSE and NSE today launched electronic book mechanism platforms for issuance of debt securities on private placement basis with two issues worth Rs 535 crore getting oversubscribed.
The platforms, BSE-BOND and NSE-EBP (Electronic Debt Bidding Platform), facilitate online bidding for private placement of debt securities.
The first placement of bond through BSE BOND was raised by HDB Financial Services with an issue size of Rs 100 crore, which was fully subscribed. HDFC Bank acted as an arranger to the issue, BSE said in a statement.
Separately, NSE said it has recorded its first deal with LIC Housing Finance raising around Rs 435 crore through the newly launched platform. The bidding window was open for 30 minutes.

The issue was managed by seven arrangers -- Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, IDFC Bank, SBI Capital Markets, Trust Investment Advisors and ISEC PD.
This initiative will help in the development of corporate bond market and is aimed at enhancing transparency and efficiency in the price discovery in the debt private placement market.
It will be optional for the 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 to the information repository for corporate debt market, in the format as specified by Sebi.

"The NSE-EBP platform is a milestone towards developing the private placements market for debt securities. We have received overwhelming response and more than expected number of bids. LIC Housing Finance opted for this despite the fact they were not mandatorily required," Mukesh Agarwal, Group head - MF and IPO at NSE said.