Rib Mop-Up At $2.5 Bn

The State Bank of India has mopped up over $2.5 billion from the non resident Indian through Resurgent India Bonds as of yesterday evening, said a senior officials from the bank yesterday.

Senior SBI officials said, the latest collection figure - as of this morning is for bonds is $2.66 billion and we expect it to touch $2.5 billion by this evening."

With this SBI has touched the target figure of $2 billion, while the internal target of $3.5 billion is yet to be achieved. Sources said that the bonds has already attracted applications from 50,000 investors besides many inquires are coming from Gulf and Middle East. "We expect that within few days the bond will attract another 10,000 applications," said sources.

Following requests from small NRI investors, SBI had extended the closing date of RIB from earliest closing date of August 17 to August 24, while the latest closing date is September 4.

The bond which opened for subscription on August 5, offers bonds in dollar, pound sterling and Deutsche Mark denomination. RIB, one of the largest retail fund raising exercise in the world, is a remarkable achievement for India, as a similar exercise by Pakistan after US sanctions was a pathetic failure, the sources pointed out.

The mobilisation till yesterday was through 49,000-odd applications received from non-resident Indians (NRIs).