BSNL Raises Rs 8500 Crore Via Sovereign Bonds of 10 years maturity guaranteed by the Government of India.
The Bond got an overwhelming response from the investors and subscribed over 2.02 times the total size. “We were able to get bids of over Rs 17,170 crore but we accepted only Rs 8,500 crore as per the approved bond size,” BSNL chairman and managing director PK Puwar said.
The Bonds got good rating from various Rating Agency.
- CRISIL AAA(CE)/Stable” by ‘CRISIL Limited,
- CARE AAA(CE)/Stable” by CARE Ratings Limited
- BWR AAA(CE)/Stable” by Brickwork India Rating Limited.
Instruments with this rating are considered to have the highest degree of safety regarding timely servicing of financial obligations and have the lowest credit risk.
The bidding through BSE EBP started on 21st September 2020 between 10:30 AM and 12:00 Noon. At the close of bidding bids worth Rs 17,183.10 Crore were received from 229 investors. The coupon rate is also best in comparison to other similar offerings in recent times.
Sri. P K Purwar, CMD BSNL informed that BSNL Management has decided to retain the full subscription of Rs 8500 Crores at a coupon rate of Rs 6.79%. These bonds are planned to be listed on BSE soon and are to be used for Debt Re-financing and meeting the CAPEX requirement of BSNL. He said that the investors response indicates the high level of trust of all the investors including Banks (HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, State Bank of India, ICICI, Punjab National Bank), Mutual Funds, Pension Funds, Rural Postal Life Insurance etc. on the State owned telecom service provider (BSNL).
The raising of Government Guaranteed Bonds of Rs 8500 Crores is a part of the Cabinet approval of the BSNL Revival package in October 2019, which also included VRS to employees of age more than 50 years, Land asset monetization, 4G spectrum allocation, and MTNL merger with BSNL.
