The Asian Development Bank and other multilateral entities are considering issuing overseas rupee bonds, boosted by the encouraging response to the first-ever overseas rupee-bond sale last week by IFC, Economic Affairs Secretary Arvind Mayaram said in Mumbai on Thursday.
The International Finance Corp, an arm of the World Bank Group, had last week sold the first-ever rupee-denominated bonds by an international agency, raising Rs 1,000 crore at a coupon of 7.75 per cent for a 3-year money.
“There are other entities such as the ADB which are also wanting to go into the international markets with rupee bonds and also from within the country. IDFC is already ready to launch a rupee-bond abroad,” Mr. Mayaram told reporters on the sidelines of a Crisil summit on corporate bond market.
“They (ADB) have just expressed their interest. They haven’t said to us what would be the size, what manner they want to go. We’re waiting for their details to come,” Mr. Mayaram added.
Mr. Mayaram said the IFC issue was not only oversubscribed over two-times but also got highly competitive rates.
“The IFC is now recalibrating. They believe they might be able to issue at a much lower coupon than they did in the first issue,” Mr. Mayaram said.
The government has been trying to internationalise the rupee, and has also been preparing to lobby with major trading partners to accept rupee payments for some exports.
“We have seen this tentative opening up in terms of reach out to the global market, which will also benchmark in some way, globally, the bonds that we have,” Mr. Mayaram said.
