NTPC floats Rs 2,000-crore masala bond issue on LSE

LONDON: Curries have always found favour in the UK. It seems that preference is now ex tending to all things `masala' or more precisely, masala bonds.

The London Stock Exchange (LSE) saw listing of these bonds worth Rs 7,000 crore in two days. If it was surface transport minister Nitin Gadkari launching Rs 5,000 crore worth of NHAI bonds on Thursday, it was power, coal and renewable energy minister Piyush Goyal's turn on Friday to kick off trading of papers worth Rs 2,000 crore from India's biggest generation utility, NTPC.

Masala bonds are rupee-denominated papers issued by Indian corporates in overseas markets to raise funds. Unlike foreign currency-denominated bonds, where the borrower takes the currency risk, investors bear the risk in case of masala bonds. The bond floats from NTPC and NHAI have raised the total offering by Indian corporates in the UK market to $6 billion, LSE chief executive Nikhil Rathi told TOI.

Goyal told investors at a Ficci round-table before launching the NTPC bond issue, "India is moving out of the old ways and moving into transparency, equal opportunity for all... Our effort is to create an environment where it makes it easier for everyone to work and do business".

He added, "We are making sure that India doesn't settle for second-best and leapfrogs with best technology available in the world. So, when you look at India, look at the scale... in the long run rupee will be a currency with most stable exchange rate. We are on growth path and we want you to be our partner in that growth."

NTPC Limited