ICICI Bank has priced a $1 billion five-year dollar bond at a much tighter spread than initially indicated, in the largest such issue by an Indian lender in nearly 14 years, three bankers said.
The offering attracted $3 billion in bids against a base issue size of $500 million, the bankers said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to the media.
ICICI Bank did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
The deal is the largest dollar bond sale by an Indian private-sector bank, and the second biggest by any local lender since State Bank of India’s $1.25 billion five-year issue in January 2013.
The private bank becomes the latest to leverage the central bank’s lower-cost hedging facility, after the Reserve Bank of India last month introduced a swap facility allowing eligible external commercial borrowings by banks and state-owned companies to be hedged at a fixed rate of 1.5% per annum, compounded semi-annually.
