ICICI hits Aussie debt market with 150-m issue at 6.2% coupon

Country's largest private sector lender ICICI Bank has hit the Australian debt market for the first time with a USD 138.2-million in five-year money as part of its USD 5-billion medium-term notes programme.
This is the second bond sale by ICICI Bank after its USD 750 million bond issue last December and is the fifth foreign currency offering after the US and Singapore dollars, Swiss francs and Chinese yuan.
"This is our debut offshore Australian dollar issuance which is being placed with investors in Asia and Europe. The expected size is AUD 100-150 million (USD 138.2 million) for a five-year tenor," a ICICI Bank spokesperson told PTI.

However, he refused to offer the coupon, citing the company policy.
Merchant banking sources said The Baa2/BBB-rated bonds will mature in April, 2019 and was priced over the London overnight rate of 99.665 to yield 6.205 per cent.
The issue carried BBB- rating from Standard & Poor's and Baa2 from Moody's.

"The objective of the deal is to diversify our investor and currency base. This also allows us to capitalise on the strong demand for our bonds evidenced in the recent tightening of our secondary spreads," he said.
The i-bankers to the issue are HSBC and ANZ Bank.
The money was raised through ICICI's Bahrain branch, according to merchant bankers and the issue got orders were close to AUD 350 million with about 80 accounts participating.

Asia bought 66 per cent of the bonds, Europe bought 29 per cent and Australia bought 5 per cent. Institutional investors were allotted 58 per cent of the issue while the rest was lapped by private banks.
The bonds will have a maturity of five years and will be listed on the Singapore Stock Exchange.
According to merchant bankers, the issue had a spread of 250 basis points over the Mid-swaps--the mid-price arrived between the bid and offer prices.