Yes Bank prices dollar bonds at 130 bps over 5-year US Treasury yield

Yes Bank on Monday priced its five-year dollar bonds at 130 basis points over the five-year US Treasury yield, sources aware of the deal confirmed to FE. The bank is believed to have raised $600 million through the issue, which is the first foreign currency bond offering by the lender. The initial price guidance on the bonds was 150 basis points over the Treasury yield, according to sources. This means the spread narrowed by 20 basis points, which is considered a significant compression for a debut issuer, a banker said. “The issue saw a great response. The peak order book stood at $1.7 billion, whereas the final order book was $1.1 billion. Asia received near 58% of the allocation while about 41% went to EMEA,” said a banker close to the deal. Moody’s Investors Service has assigned a Baa3 rating to Yes Bank’s proposed senior unsecured notes, issued under its $1-billion Medium Term Note (MTN) programme. The drawdown is from its IFSC Banking Unit Branch in Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT city), Moody’s said.

The bonds will be listed on the London Stock Exchange International Securities Market, the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading, and the India International Exchange IFSC, the agency indicated adding that the rating outlook is stable.

Last week, Exim Bank India had priced its 10-year dollar bonds at a tight spread of 125 basis points over the 10-year US Treasury yield to raise a billion dollars.

The overseas bond market might see several issuances from Indian banks in 2018, as more than $6 billion of foreign currency bank bonds come up for maturity during the year, and these will likely be refinanced through fresh issuances, say bankers. Bloomberg data shows that of the total bonds coming up for redemption in the year, those worth about $5.35 billion are all large size issues by banks. Of these, bonds issued by ICICI Bank, Indian Overseas Bank, HDFC Bank and IDBI Bank worth $2.5 billion will mature in the first quarter of the calendar.

Yes Bank