New Delhi: – Manappuram Finance Ltd., one of India’s leading NBFCs predominantly focused on gold loans, has successfully raised US$ 300 million by way of senior secured fixed rate notes issuance for a 3-year tenor. The issue was placed with a coupon of 5.90%.

This is the first issuance by the Company in the global bond market, tapping investors in Asia and Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA). The proceeds of the issue will be used for onward lending and other activities as permitted by the RBI and extant guidelines for external commercial borrowings.

 

Earlier, the company had engaged extensively with investors during a roadshow across Singapore, Hong Kong, and London. Buoyed by strong investor interest, the issue was launched with an initial price guidance of about 6.25%. However, following the exceptional interest shown by over a hundred high-quality investors, the final order book exceeded US$

1.15 billion and the company was able to tighten the pricing to 5.90%.

 

The firm offers were allocated mostly to asset and fund managers (87%), with private bankers (8%) and banks (5%) taking up the rest. Geographically, 76% was allocated to accounts in Asia and 24% to accounts in EMEA. The bonds will list on International Securities Market of the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Limited (“SGX-ST”).

 

Manappuram Finance Ltd. had obtained long term foreign-currency and local currency issuer credit rating of ‘BB-’ with ‘Stable’ outlook from Fitch Ratings and long term issuer credit rating of ‘BB-‘ with ‘Stable’ outlook from S&P Global Ratings.

 

In a statement released to the media, V.P. Nandakumar, MD&CEO, said “The overwhelming response from international investors and the attractive pricing in times of global uncertainty, is once again a reaffirmation of the fundamental strength of our business model. The success of the issue and its attractive pricing enables us to further diversify our funding sources. We look forward to a sustainable and mutually beneficial long-term partnership with our global bond investors.”

 

UBS AG Singapore Branch (“UBS”) acted as Global Coordinator. UBS and Barclays Bank PLC acted as Joint Book Runner for the issue.