NEW DELHI, JULY 21: Power Finance Corporation's (PFC) $ 100 million dollar floating rate notes (FRN) were fully subscribed amidst political uncertainty and default of FRN issue by the Essar group.The $ 100 million issue, which closed yesterday, was priced at 145 basis points above London Inter Bank Offered Rate (Libor). The tenor of the FRN issue is for seven years with call and put option at the end of five years.When contacted, director finance of PFC T N Thakur said "we are happy about the success of the issue in view of the prevailing environment factor and the low pricing at which PFC has been able to mobilise $ 100 million." The issue was arranged by a consortium of bank led by ABN Amro with Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, Rabo Bank and Natexis Banque being the senior co-lead managers.While ABN Amro and Bank of Baroda picked up $ 11 million each of the issue, Bank of India subscribed to notes worth $ 15 million dollars, corporation sources said. Rabo Bank and Natexis Banque picked up $ 10million each of the state-owned company paper, the sources said.PFC has already been given the soverign ratings from international credit rating agencies Moody's and the Standard and Poor's. The company has also been given the highest safety ratings (AAA) from ICRA and Crisil.PFC chairman and managing director Uddesh Kohli said that he would lead a four-member team to Singapore tomorrow for signing the deal. Ralffelsen Zentralbank Osterrelch Ag and Uco Bank also joined as senior co-lead managers for the issue, the sources said.They said the other institutions that participated in the deal are the Arab Investment Company SAA, Banca Monte Del Paschi Dl Slena SPA, Indian Bank, Indian Overseas Bank and Canara Cank.Road shows for the issue were held in Singapore, Mumbai, Dubai, London, Paris and Florence. The road shows concluded on eighth July, the sources said. Though there was a great deal of investors' enthusiasm noticed during the road shows, some of the investors were not too happy about thecoupon rate which they thought was to high, the sources said.The issue also had a green shoe option of $ 50 million and was not exercised by the corporation, the sources said. Sources said the amount mopped up through the issue would be used to meet the funding requirements of the public and private sector power utilities.Banking sources said the issue was a success despite the border tension, announcement of elections and default by the Essar group.
