The country's largest state-owned lender had started the book-building process through its London branch, with an initial guidance of T+185 bps, and has received bids worth over $5 billion, they added. The final quantum the bank would raise was not yet decided, traders added. On Tuesday, SBI mandated Citigroup, Emirates NBD Capital, HSBC, J.P. Morgan, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, and Standard Chartered Bank as joint lead managers to arrange a series of fixed-income investor calls in Asia and Europe. S&P Global Ratings and Fitch Ratings have assigned a BBB- rating to the lender's proposed dollar bonds. The proceeds would be used for general corporate purposes per applicable law and meeting the funding requirement of the SBI's foreign offices. The bond issue will have a put option if the aggregate of direct and indirect Government of India shareholding falls below 51%.
Last week, the board of SBI approved raising $2 billion through foreign currency bonds in the current financial year through senior unsecured notes in single or multiple tranches. (Reporting by Bhakti Tambe and Dharamraj Dhutia; Editing by Rashmi Aich and Janane Venkatraman)
