ICICI Bank raises $300 m through Eurobonds float

 The bonds are in the nature of unsecured fixed rate senior notes. They were priced through a book-building process at 106 basis points over the London inter bank offered rate (Libor) which is at 4.75 per cent.

 The bonds have a bullet repayment at the end of five years and are listed on the Singapore Stock Exchange.

 "The pricing reflects the scarcity value of Indian papers. There is a thrirst for Indian papers especially blue-chip Indian companies. Indian companies have not been frequenting the market," said DSP Merrill Lynch's executive vice president.

 Deutsche Bank and Merrill Lynch were the bookrunners/lead managers and arrangers to the issue. The bonds were rated 'Baa3' by Moody's and 'BB' by Standard & Poor, in line with ICICI Bank's existing long-term foreign currency debt ratings.

 The final terms of the Around 44 per cent of the investors of the bonds were from Asia, 40 per cent from Europe and the remaining 16 per cent from offshore US funds.

 Around 45 per cent of the issue were subscribed by funds, 35 per cent by banks and 10 per cent by insurance companies.

 According to sources ICICI Bank has been able to get a better pricing on the back of an investment grade rating which was better than Indian the Indian soverign.

 The last time the bond market was tapped by Reliance Industries in 1997.

 "The priving is tighter than other banks in the region with comparable and even higher ratings," said Deutsche Bank's managing director and head of global markets (Asia) Boon-Chye Loh.

 Dealers also pointed that ICICI Bank had used the bond markets where the spreads had fallen as against the syndicated market where the spreads had widened by 40 basis points.

 ICICI Bank had tapped the overseas market on the back of the debt restructuring of the steel companies.

 Banks and Financial instutions had restructured Rs 20,000 crore of the debt of the steel companies. Around 40 per cent of the debt of the steel companies had been converted into forex loans.