- Yes Bank plans a three-year dollar bond, its first since the 2020 AT1 debt write-off
- The bank has appointed arrangers and will hold calls with fixed-income investors soon
- Yes Bank's AT1 bonds were written off during its 2020 reconstruction led by SBI consortium
Yes Bank is preparing to return to the international bond market with a proposed three-year dollar-denominated issue, marking its first such move since the lender's controversial Additional Tier 1 (AT1) debt write-off in 2020, according to Bloomberg.
The bank plans to sell a benchmark-sized three-year US dollar bond and is scheduled to hold calls with fixed-income investors, the report added, citing people familiar with the matter. Yes Bank has appointed arrangers for the proposed issue.
The move comes more than six years after Yes Bank permanently wrote off its AT1 debt in March 2020. AT1 bonds are hybrid securities that qualify as bank capital and can be written off when certain regulatory or contractual triggers are breached.
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The write-off came as Indian authorities intervened in Yes Bank and implemented a reconstruction plan, with State Bank of India leading a consortium that rescued the lender.
Yes Bank has since worked to rebuild its financial position. In 2025, the banking arm of Japan's Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group acquired a roughly 25% stake in the lender, becoming its largest shareholder. The bank has also benefited from a series of upgrades to its local-currency debt ratings.
Crisil Ratings raised the ratings on Yes Bank's rupee infrastructure bonds and Basel III-compliant Tier 2 debt to AA+ in August from AA-, citing a sustained improvement in the lender's earnings profile. The same bonds were rated A- at the beginning of 2023, according to Bloomberg.
The proposed dollar bond, however, carries a different investor backdrop. Yes Bank's dollar debt is rated Ba1 by Moody's Ratings and BB+ by S&P Global Ratings, leaving it one notch below investment grade, according to the report.
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The timing also comes as Indian lenders increase their overseas fundraising. Indian banks have raised a combined $5.27 billion over the past two months, following measures announced by the Reserve Bank of India in June to encourage capital inflows and support the rupee.
For Yes Bank, the proposed dollar bond would represent more than another funding avenue. It would also test how international debt investors view the lender's turnaround following its 2020 crisis and the controversial AT1 write-off.
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