SBI to tap overseas bond market again;eyes $1.5 billion in dlr debt

Mumbai: SBI, which has board approval to raise Rs 15,000 crore through multiple routes, today said it will be hitting the overseas debt market with a USD 1.5 billion dollar bond sale in the next financial year.

SBI, however, did not specify when it will tap the dollar bond market. It can be noted that in last June the bank had informed about its plans to raise a similar amount in dollar money, but did not proceed with the plan.

In a BSE filing this evening, the bank said its "executive committee of the central board will meet on March 24 to examine the issuance of RegS bonds worth USD1.5 billion for a tenor not exceeding 5.5 years in fiscal 2018." The board meeting will also finalise issuance of equity shares to the shareholders of three of its listed subsidiaries, which will be merged with it along with two other unlisted associates, from April 1, the filing said.

The three listed associate banks are State Bank of Travancore, State Bank of Mysore and State Bank of Jaipur & Bikaner, while the two unlisted ones are State Bank of Hyderabad and State Bank of Patila.

Today, the government said the Bharatiya Mahila Bank will also be merged with SBI over the next three months. After a long gap, SBI had tapped the overseas debt market late January and had raised USD 500 million in a five- year dollar bond sale. The drawdown was carried out through its London branch, and are now traded on Singapore Exchange.

This bond sale was part of the nation's largest lender's USD 10-billion medium-term notes programme. Before this, SBI had raised USD 300 million last September and prior to that in February 2014, it had raised USD 1.25 billion in US dollar debt.

The bank has so far raised USD 3.5 billion out of its USD 10 billion MTN programme, including USD 400 million in perpetual bonds. The bank had also concluded AT1 Basel III-compliant non-convertible, perpetual non-call five-year subordinated, unsecured notes at a coupon 5.5 per cent payable semi-annually under USD 10 billion RegS bond programme.