by Suman Gupta
Mumbai, December , 2022: State Bank of India (SBI), the country’s largest lender, has raised Rs. 10,000 crores through its maiden infrastructure bond issuance on Friday at coupon rate of 7.51%. This is the largest single infrastructure bond issued by any Bank in the country. The amount raised through bonds will be utilized in enhancing long term resources for funding infrastructure and affordable housing segment. The tenor of these bonds is 10 years.
The issue attracted overwhelming response from investors with bids of Rs. 16,366 crores and was oversubscribed by about 3.27 times against the base issue. The issuance with 143 bids also demonstrates the confidence of investor class. This also very clearly demonstrates the maturity of Indian investors in their selection of Issuers of such instruments.
Based on the response, the Bank has decided to accept Rs. 10,000 crores at a coupon rate of 7.51% payable annually for a tenor of 10 years. This represents spread of 17 bps over the corresponding Government of India Security, indicates high quality of credit.
SBI Chairman Shri Dinesh Khara said that “Development of infrastructure is a key priority for the country and SBI, being the largest lender, has been in the forefront for advancement of social, green and other infrastructure projects. These long term bonds will help the bank in furthering the cause of infrastructure development”.
The Bank has AAA credit rating from domestic credit rating agencies for these instruments. Infrastructure offers primary facilities that serve various economic activities which helps in the facilitation of the growth of the country & development of the economy through sectors such as healthcare, education, communication, transport, and others.
About State Bank of India:State Bank of India is the largest commercial bank in terms of assets, deposits, branches, customers, and employees. SBI has 22,309 branches and 65,796 ATMs / ADWMs in India with 66,757 BC outlets. As on September 30, 2022, the bank has a deposit base of over Rs. 41.90 lakh crore and advances of more than Rs. 30 lakh crore. It is also the largest mortgage lender in the country which has so far fulfilled the home buying dreams of over 30 lakh Indian families. SBI commands a market share of 32.9% and 19.2% in home loans and auto loans respectively. The number of customers using internet banking and mobile banking stand at 107 million and 54 million respectively. With SBI’s digital strategy right on track – the bank witnessed 63% of new savings accounts opened through the integrated digital and lifestyle platform YONO in FY23. SBI observed 23,200 new digital savings bank accounts being opened per day via YONO in the quarter ended September 2022. YONO, which has 5.44 crore registered users, witnessed 72.75 lakh customer visiting YONO Shop & Order in Q2 FY23. SBI also has the highest number of followers on Facebook and Twitter amongst all banks worldwide.
