Great Eastern $50m Frn Concluded

Gesco is one of India's largest private sector shipping companies and this was its first borrowing from the capital market on an unsecured basis.

The FRN issue is also the first 7-year floating rate note to be issued by a private sector Indian corporate.

The funds are to be utilised for financing the company's existing fleet.

The issue priced at 135 basis points over the six-month Libor, with a reoffer price of 99.85 per cent gives a discounted margin of 138 basis points over Libor to investors.

With ANZ Bank as the lead manager, the fund managers included globally prominent names like JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, and HSBC.

This, coupled with Standard & Poor's recent ungrading of India to BB+, perhaps contributed to the issue's success.

ANZ targetted 3 regions for distribution of this issue -- 60 per cent was distributed in Asia, with 20 per cent going to the Middle East and 20 per cent being sold in Europe.