SBI To Raise $2 Billion Via Overseas Bond Sales
State Bank of India (SBI), the country's largest government-owned entity by market capitalisation, said on Monday that it plans to raise up to $2 billion through overseas bond sales in FY24, dwarfing last year's foreign fund-raises by three of its closest private-sector rivals, including HDFC Bank.
SBI's board of directors will meet on April 18 to discuss raising funds through the sale of senior unsecured notes. SBI is expected to sell these bonds in multiple tranches to foreign investors.
The instruments can be denominated in any currency, including the US dollar, even as global debates over the US's future interest-rate trajectory and the likely path of the world's reserve currency through a year of modest global growth at best heat up.
SBI, which accounts for nearly a fifth of all outstanding bank loans in the country, told stock exchanges late Monday that it will investigate the situation and decide on a long-term fundraising strategy, which could include a public offering or private placement of senior unsecured notes in US dollars or other convertible foreign currencies under Regulation S/144A.
The Regulation S/144A allows non-US companies to issue securities to investors in both the US and other markets without registering with the Securities and Exchange Commission. (SEC).
According to debt-market analysts, the largest private-sector lenders, such as HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, and Axis Bank, typically issue overseas bonds worth $1 billion or less per fiscal year. According to them, no private sector lender's bond issuances exceeded a billion dollars in FY23.