India’s largest private lender, HDFC Bank, is tapping the dollar bond market for the second time in two months, as banks scramble to close overseas fundraising before a special central bank FX swap window closes.
The Mumbai-based lender plans to raise at least $500 million each through three-year and five-year bonds via its GIFT City branch, the bankers said, requesting anonymity as they are not authorised to speak to media.
“Investor calls have been lined up, and the final pricing for the issue should be completed by Friday,” one of the bankers said.
“Since this would be the last issue before the end of August, we will not be surprised if the final quantum easily surpasses $1 billion.”
HDFC Bank did not reply to a Reuters query seeking comment.
Last week, the Reserve Bank of India decided to prematurely close a discounted swap facility provided to banks for hedging non-resident deposits. The central bank expects close to $80 billion in inflows via subsidised swap facilities opened in June, central bank governor Sanjay Malhotra told the Financial Express newspaper.
HDFC Bank’s peer ICICI Bank ICBK.NS has also targeted investors based in the United States for its dollar bonds issued over the last few weeks.
If completed, the latest bond sale would take HDFC Bank’s total proceeds from such issues to $1.75 billion, the most after ICICI Bank.
Another private lender, IDFC First Bank IDFB.NS, has raised $600 million through its debut dollar debt sale with three-year maturity through a private placement, it said in a statement on Wednesday.
Indian lenders have so far raised $7.55 billion via dollar bonds since the concessional hedging facility was announced on June 5. The swap window will close on August 31, a month before the initial deadline of September end.
Reuters
