RBL Bank raises $350 million in debut international bond sale
The bank priced the bond ar 120 basis points above the five year US treasury, tighter than the initial pricing guidance of 150 basis points above the five year paper. One basis point is 0.01 percentage point.
With the five year US treasury trading at 4.59%, the RBL bonds are likely to be priced at around 5.79%.
RBL Bank has raised $350 million through its first international bond sale, pricing bonds tighter than initial guidance. Strong investor demand supports funding for GIFT City growth and liability management, while Emirates NBD’s backing strengthens credit quality and investor confidence.
“Total peak bids we received were more than $2.2 billion. 75% of the demand was from long only funds like insurance and pension funds while the rest was from hedge funds and banks. The money raised will be used to support our growth in GIFT branch & elongate our liability duration,” said Anshul Chandak, head of treasury at RBL Bank.
The funds raised through the bonds will help the bank refinance short-term loans taken to provide leverage to clients investing in foreign currency non-resident (bank), or FCNR (B), deposits.
Swapping short-term loans with a tenure matching the FCNR (B) deposits will help the banks tide over temporary asset liability mismatches.
Earlier this month RBL Bank had said it has garnered $3.4 billion from FCNR (B) deposits till the August 31, closure date of the concessional swap facility.
Loans provided by the international banking unit of the bank against such deposits stand at $1.08 billion, RBL had said.
The dollar bond a first for RBL Bank is rated Baa2 one notch above India’s sovereign rating of Baa3 mainly on expectations of support from its majority shareholder, Emirates NBD Bank.
Emirates NBD’s acquired a 60% controlling stake in RBL in June through an investment of Rs 26,000 crore, the largest foreign direct investment in an Indian bank at the time. Moody’s said it expects the Dubai-based lender to support the bank in times of need. It therefore assigned a two-notch uplift over the bank’s standalone credit profile.
