Srei Infra yet to decide on second trench of bond issue

AHMEDABAD" Srei Infrastructure Finance on Monday said that it would decide on the second trench of the public issue of tax-free bonds depending upon the response to the tranche-I issue that seeks to raise upto Rs 300 crore.

"Depending on the response to this particular issue (tranche-I) we will decide whether to go for the second tranche or not," SREI CFO Sanjeev K Sancheti said. "We are now focusing more on the infrastructure debt fund through the mutual fund route to be launched by us," he said.

Srei, which was accorded a status of an Infrastructure Finance Company (IFC)by RBI in 2011, is raising up to Rs 300 crore through the first tranche of the issue which is currently on and closes on January 31.

The company had filed prospectus with the market regulator SEBI to raise Rs 500 crore through a public issue of tax free infrastructure bonds, by end of this fiscal.

IDFC, another IFC company, had mopped up Rs 538 crore from the first tranche of its tax-saving long term infrastructure bonds from around 2.7 lakh retail investors recently. IDFC company had plans to raise Rs 5,000 crore from the infra bonds issue this fiscal.

L&T Infra Finance, today, announced another trench of tax saving bond issue to raise Rs 570 crore though at a lower coupon rate of 8.70 per cent. It raised Rs 530 crore in the first trench at an interest rate of nine per cent.

Srei Infra's bonds with a face value of Rs 1,000 will be issued in four series at an annual interest rate of 8.90 per cent for series 1 and 2 with 10-year maturity and 9.15 per cent for series 3 and 4 with 15-year maturity. Bonds have a lock-in period of five years.

The company's consolidated disbursements last fiscal stood at Rs 14,400 crore. It expects a 25-30 per cent growth in disbursements this fiscal.

Its total market borrowings stood at Rs 13,000 crore as of September, 2011. It gross NPA's range between 2 to 2.3 per cent.

Source: EconomicTimes