RIL hits overseas debt market with a $1 billion issue

Reliance Industries has hit the international debt market with an aim to raise around $1 billion by selling bonds to international investors.

According to market sources, the issuance is the same that the company was planning to raise last month, which was called off after interest rates tightened.

When contacted, an RIL spokesperson refused to comment.

In December, the company had hired as many as 11 i-bankers, including HSBC, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Standard Chartered, for the issue to raise $1 billion debt.

Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) is the most cash-rich company in the country sitting on a cash pile of Rs 78,691 crore at end of the December quarter, down from Rs 83,456 crore at the end of previous September quarter.

Similarly, its debt rose to Rs 1,50,007 crore from Rs 1,42,084 crore during the same period. In the December quarter, RIL reported its first drop in net profit in nine quarters at Rs 5,256 crore, slipping 4.5 per cent due to steep fall in crude prices.

International rating agency Moody's has assigned a Baa2 rating to the proposed bonds.

It can be noted that RIL is one of the most prolific debt raisers in the country with the company having raised $3.3 billion in overseas debt in 2014.

RIL issue is the first international bond sale by a domestic corporate this year.

In January 2013, Reliance became the first company from Asia to issue $800 million worth of perpetual debt to international investors at a coupon rate of 5.875 per cent. A perpetual bond is the one which has no fixed maturity date.

RIL has unveiled an over Rs 1.8 trillion capex plan for the next three years with a good portion of that going into his soon-to-be-launched telecom venture under the brand name Reliance Jio, into which the company has announced a whopping $12 billion investment.