Reliance Holdings raises $1 bn through 10-yr bonds

Reliance Industries today said its US subsidiary has raised $1 billion selling 10-year dollar-denominated debt, the largest overseas bond sale from an Indian company in nine months.

Reliance Holdings USA Inc, a wholly-owned subsidiary of RIL, sold 5.4 per cent senior, unsecured notes maturing in February 2022 at 345 basis points more than similar-maturity Treasuries, the company said in a press statement.

"The Notes have been priced at 345 basis points over the 10-year US Treasury Note, at a price of 99.481 per cent to yield 5.468 per cent," it said.

Reliance Holding will use the proceeds to fund its ongoing capital expenditure, to make business investments, to refinance its existing debt and for general corporate purposes.

"The transaction was well executed despite the short time-window and a volatile global environment," RIL Joint Chief Financial Officer V Srikanth said.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Barclays Capital, Citigroup Global Markets Inc, The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited and UBS AG, Singapore Branch acted as joint bookrunners and lead managers.

"In terms of geographic distribution, the Notes were distributed 31 per cent in Asia, 17 per cent in Europe and 52 per cent in the United States," the statement said.

The issue, which is the first corporate bond from India in 2012 and first since August 2011, was over-subscribed nearly 8 times with an orderbook aggregating $7.8 billion.

The bonds were distributed to high quality fixed income accounts: 65 per cent to fund managers, 15 per cent to insurance funds, 10 per cent to banks, 5 per cent to private banks and 5 per cent to government agencies.