by Suman Gupta
- USD 750 million 5-years Regulation S only issuance at 4.875 % coupon
- Strong final orderbook in excess of USD 2.9 billion that included several marquee accounts across geographies.
- Peak order book of USD 5.4 billion, largest amongst all Indian issuances in current year.
- 7 x oversubscription allowed SBI to tighten the pricing by 40 bps (i.e. from initial guidance of T+185 bps area to final pricing of T+145bps) which is the largest spread compression amongst all USD Indian bond issuances during current year.
- Largest USD 5-year Reg S bond issuance by an Asian issuer in 2023
- Issued under SBI’s Medium Term Note (MTN) programme and listed on the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Limited (Singapore SGX) and the India International Exchange (India INX)
Mumbai, April 28, 2023: India’s largest public sector bank, State Bank of India, acting through its London Branch, today priced a 5-year US$750 million bond issuance at a coupon rate of 4.875 %. The bonds are benchmarked against 5 year US treasury and priced at a spread of 145 bp over the benchmark. The bonds were issued under SBI’s MTN Programme and will be listed on Singapore SGX and the India INX, Gift City. The Notes are expected to carry a final rating of BBB- and BBB- from Standard & Poor’s and Fitch respectively.
The issuance received an overwhelming response and saw strong interest from investors across geographies with a final order book in excess of USD 2.9 billion across 181 accounts. On the back of strong demand, the order booked peaked at USD 5.4 billion, making room for the guidance to be revised from T+185 area to T+145. The successful issuance demonstrates the strong investor base SBI has created for itself in offshore capital markets, allowing it to efficiently raise funds from world’s leading fixed income investors, even during periods of heightened volatility.
Commenting on the occasion, Mr. Dinesh Khara, Chairman, SBI said “The successful issue highlights SBI’s strong investor base in offshore capital markets, which enables it to effectively raise funds from the world’s leading fixed income investors, especially during moments of increased volatility and uncertainty. This demonstrates global investors’ confidence in the Indian banking sector in general, and in SBI in particular, and it also attests to SBI’s unparalleled access to global capital markets”.
Citigroup, Emirates NBD Capital, HSBC, J.P. Morgan, MUFG and Standard Chartered Bank acted as Joint Global Coordinators and Joint Lead Managers for this offering.
About State Bank of India: State Bank of India is the largest commercial bank in terms of assets, deposits, branches, customers, and employees. 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. The home loan portfolio of the bank has crossed Rs. 6.00 lakh crore. As on December 31, 2022, the bank has a deposit base of over Rs. 42.13 lakh crore with CASA ratio of 44.48% and advances of more than Rs. 31 lakh crore. SBI commands a market share of 33.3% and 19.4% in home loans and auto loans respectively. SBI has the largest network of 22,381 branches and 65,650 ATMs / ADWMs in India with 70,258 BC outlets. The number of customers using internet banking and mobile banking stand at 111 million and 58 million respectively. With SBI’s digital strategy right on track – the bank witnessed 64% of new savings accounts opened through the integrated digital and lifestyle platform YONO in FY22. SBI observed 22,120 new digital savings bank accounts being opened per day via YONO in the quarter ended December 2022. YONO, which has more than 5.75 crore registered users, witnessed more than 1 crore average daily logins in Q3 FY23. In terms of digital lending, the bank disbursed pre-approved personal loans worth Rs. 5,050 crore through YONO in the same period. SBI also has the highest number of followers on Facebook and Twitter amongst all banks worldwide.
