Mumbai: HDFC Bank was the first off the blocks to take advantage of the 1.5% fixed rate swap provided by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to raise external commercial borrowings (ECBs) as the lender raised $750 million selling 5-year bonds to overseas investors through the GIFT City IFSC Banking Unit.
The bond was the bank's first overseas issue since February 2024.The bond was priced at 90 basis points above the 5-year US treasury, the tightest spread over the US benchmark for any private sector bank in India, bankers who were part of the issue said.
The bank collected an order book of $2.1 billion with about 90 investors bidding for the bond.
Investors from Asia dominated, cornering 68% of the issue followed by Europe, Middle East and Africa which had 32%.
Large global asset managers made up 54% of the investors with global banks and financial institutions cornering 28% of the share, said a banker familiar with the details of the issue.131815020In a bid to attract overseas dollars, the RBI announced a special swap arrangement earlier this month.
