Taking a cue from its bigger counterparts like State Bank of India and ICICI Bank,Government-owned lender,Bank of India has tapped the international market to raise USD 500-million through a bond issue.
The bank said that it raised USD 500-million under its Medium Term Notes (MTN) programme at an interest rate of 4.75 per cent. The bonds have been swapped into a floating rate of 175 basis points above Libor.
An MTN programme allows an issuer to raise funds on an ongoing basis through various products such as floating rate notes or on a fixed rate after obtaining prior regulatory and other approvals.
With this,Bank of India has so far raised USD 1-billion under its USD 2-billion MTN programme,which was launched in 2005.
The lender had approached international investors with its roadshow in February this year for the USD 500-million issue but later deferred it for sometime as market conditions were not favourable.
The book size of the issue was USD 4-billion and orders were spread over 300 quality investors,the bank said.