MUMBAI: L&T Finance
, a fully owned unit of Indian engineering conglomerate Larsen & Toubro (L&T), on Monday said it plans to raise up
to 10 bn rupees via a retail bond sale that opens on Tuesday. The funds will be used to lend and invest, and for other operations including capital expenditure and working capital requirements.
"Currently there is no plan of inorganic growth in L&T Finance," Larsen & Toubro's Chief Financial Officer Y.M. Deosthalee told reporters at the conference on Monday. L&T Finance, which plans to enter the general insurance
business, will sell five-year bonds with an annualised yield of 9.85 percent, seven-year (88-month) bonds with an annualised yield of 9.95 percent and 10-year bonds with an annualised yield of 10.50 percent.
The bonds are rated 'AA-plus' by CARE and 'LAA-plus' by ICRA, indicating high credit quality. The issue, which aims to raise at least 5 billion rupees and has a greenshoe option to retain extra bids worth another 5 billion rupees, is scheduled to close on Sept. 4. Of this amount, 35 percent is allocated for retail investors, 30 percent for non-institutional investors, and another 25 percent for qualified institutional buyers, which includes 10 percent allocated to pension, provident and superannuation funds.
The company said it has chosen the retail route to broaden its investor base, and bankers said a private placement of the bonds would have been about 25-40 basis points cheaper. Another commercial vehicles financier, Shriram Transport Finance Co Ltd, last week closed its 10-billion-rupee retail bond sale, which bankers say was oversubscribed over 4.5 times within a day of opening.
Shriram Transport, also rated 'AA-plus' by CARE and 'AA' by Fitch, had sold tenors ranging from three- to five-years, with a maximum yield on redemption of 11.50 percent. Bankers say the lower yield on the L&T Finance bonds is due to the strong reputation of its top-rated parent, with further comfort provided by the oversubscription of the Shriram issue.
"That issue showed that there is solid demand for these debentures in the public space if the yield is competitive," said a banker. SBI Capital Markets
, J.M. Financial Consultants and Standard Chartered Bank are lead managers to the L&T Finance retail issue.
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