Indian Railway Finance Corporation Ltd (IRFC) on Friday listed its $750-million 10-year bonds under the $4-billion GMTN programme at India INX in GIFT-IFSC. It is also listing the bonds on London and Singapore stock exchanges to widen its reach to the investor community.
“We got fully subscribed in first 40 minutes for the $750 million bond. Our target for bond issuances this year is $2.5 billion of which only $0.75 billion has happened. So, in the next two months there is more to come,” said Amitabh Banerjee Chairman and Managing Director, IRFC.
To tap market again
The bonds, over-subscribed by over 4 times, were issued in a single tranche at a margin of 167.5 bps over 10-year treasury, pegging the fixed coupon rate at 2.80 per cent. Banerjee said bonds issuance at 2.80 per cent was one of the tightest achieved by an Indian CPSE in the 10-year segment in the recent times.
Injeti Srinivas, Chairman IFSC Authority, termed the development as an encouragement to the broader investor community and institutions to come to GIFT-IFSC for fund raising.
Record turnover
V. Balasubramaniam, MD & CEO India INX, commented that the aggregate MTNs established on India INX platform since launch in January 2018 is worth over $50.5 billion and listing of bonds aggregate to $26.3 billion. “With the constant support of our regulator in providing us with a highly enabling framework that puts us at par with other global listing venues it is our endeavour to be the leading Exchange in terms of listed debt instruments not only in IFSC but globally,” he added.
IRFC has already listed $1.5 billion bonds under its $4 billion Global Medium Term Note programme and $500 million green bond issuance on India INX.
On February 11, 2021, the single-day trading turnover on the Exchange crossed an all-time high of $24.59 billion. The Exchange has also made available listing of Global Depository Receipts, REITs and InvITs.