Firms Raise Over Rs 8,000 Crore Via Bond Issues On E-Book Platforms

Mumbai: Listed companies have raised over Rs 8,000 crore by issuing debt securities on the newly launched electronic book mechanism on stock exchanges in just 15 days since the launch of these platforms.

The platforms - BSE-BOND and NSE-EBP (electronic debt bidding platform) - were launched on July 1 to facilitate online bidding for private placement of debt securities.

Since then, the listed entities have raised a cumulative amount of Rs 8,014 crore through 30 issuances, data compiled from the exchanges showed.

Individually, the companies acquired funds to the tune of Rs 4,881 crore through 23 bond issues on BSE-BOND.

The issue size of the debt securities was not available.

Reliance Industries' telecom arm Reliance Jio Infocomm raised an amount of Rs 2,000 crore - the highest among the other issuances. It was followed by an amount of Rs 700 crore raised by Shriram Transport Finance Company.

On the NSE, entities raised a total of Rs 3,133 crore through seven issuances from the e-book platform on National Stock Exchange (NSE) above the issue size of Rs 2,935 crore.

Bank of India garnered the highest amount of Rs 1,500 crore, followed by Export Import Bank of India (Rs 475 crore) and LIC Housing Finance (Rs 435 crore).

The funds have been raised from various sources including banks, mutual funds, insurance companies, foreign portfolio investors and corporates, among others.

The platforms allow all categories of investors to place bids.

The e-book platforms are expected to bring in transparency and efficiency in price discovery for private placement of debt securities.

It will be optional for issues below Rs 500 crore, but the issuers will have to disclose coupon, yield, amount raised, number of investors and category of investors to the electronic book provider or to the information repository for corporate debt market, in the format as specified by market regulator Sebi.

Arrangers include merchant bankers, Reserve Bank of India-registered primary dealers or any other registered intermediaries as notified by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) from time to time.

The exchanges had only recently received the market regulator's approval to act as electronic book providers (EBPs) to facilitate electronic book mechanism for issuance of debt securities on a private placement basis.

EBPs are required to have all necessary infrastructure like adequate office space, equipment, risk management capabilities, manpower and other information technology infrastructure for effective functioning.