CORPORATE

RIL mops up $4 bn via dollar bonds, India’s largest-ever foreign currency bond issue

Reliance Industries (RIL) said on Thursday that it had raised $4 billion by issuing US dollar bonds in three tranches, claiming it to be the largest-ever foreign currency bond issue from India.  


The conglomerate had raised $1.5 billion in a 10-year tranche, $1.75 billion in a 30-year tranche and $750 million in a 40-year deal, it said in a regulatory filing on Thursday.  


RIL had received board approval on January 1 to raise up to $5 billion in multiple tranches through US-denominated notes. The company said that the bond issue was subscribed over three times with orders mostly from Asia and the US. 


The proceeds from the bond issue will primarily be used for refinancing existing borrowings.  

Srikanth Venkatachari, the joint CFO of RIL, said in a statement that the mega issue was not only the largest debt capital market transaction for the conglomerate but also “the tightest credit spreads across each of the long-dated tenors (sic) for any corporate (sic) in India.” 


“The Notes are rated BBB+ by S&P and Baa2 by Moody’s. The Notes were nearly 3 times oversubscribed with a peak order book aggregating $11.5 billion and were priced through RIL’s secondary curve. The Notes have been priced at 120 basis points, 160 basis points and 170 basis points over the respective US Treasuries’ benchmark,” the RIL statement read.  


The conglomerate’s mega fund-raising comes at a time when it is eyeing a big push into the new renewable energy business, comprising hydrogen and solar, over the next decade.  

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