Air India Assets Holding (AIAHL), the special purpose vehicle of Air India, has raised ₹7,000 crore on the BSE bond platform.

The national carrier has a loan book of ₹58,000 crore.

Ashwani Lohani, Chairman, AIAHL and CMD, Air India, said that the issue was subscribed at a rate of 6.99 per cent. “This reflects the confidence of the market in securities fully backed by the Government of India. The positive response received from all categories of investors will act as a stimulus to the disinvestment process of Air India.” Vinod Hejmadi, Director, AIAHL and Director Finance, Air India, said: “The issue was oversubscribed by 20.83 times despite the volatile market conditions today. It was the record largest mobilisation of funds for yield-based bidding in the history of BSE’s Electronic Bidding Platform.”

Another spokesperson said that the ₹1,000-crore bond issue of AIAHL was for a three-year tenure, and a green shoe option of ₹6,000 crore. “The company received bids worth ₹20,830 crore which is the highest in the yield-based bond market in the history of BSE. The company has decided to accept the entire issue of ₹7,000 crore,” the spokesperson added.

According to agency reports, Air India reportedly posted a net loss of about ₹8,400 crore in the financial year 2018-19, dented by higher operating costs and foreign exchange losses. Total revenues stood at around ₹26,400 crore during the year under review. The BSE has been a market leader for bond issuances. Since inception on July 1, 2016, the debt platforms of the BSE have seen 189 issuers raise ₹8,84,567 crore through 1,801 issues of bonds. Some of the issuers include PFC, RECL, IRFC, PGCI, NHAI, Axis Bank, PGCI, Nabard, Hudco, YES Bank, Reliance Industries, and Reliance Jio Infocomm, among others, a release from the BSE added.

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