Amarchand & Mangaldas and Allen & Overy have advised State Bank of India on its successful overseas offering of $1.25 billion of senior unsecured bonds due 2017, the largest offering by an Indian bank after the Lehman Brothers collapse.
This marks the first issue of U.S. dollar bonds by an Indian bank since May 2011, and the largest single-tranche offering by a public sector bank in India. The offering was priced with a coupon of 4.125 percent per annum, which is the lowest ever coupon achieved by an Indian issuer in the U.S. dollar bond market for a five-year tenor.
The State Bank of India is India’s largest bank, with a total asset size of Rs. 13,355.2 billion, with 14,097 branches in India, 173 international offices in 34 countries, and more than 202 million customer accounts as of March 31, 2012.
The Amarchand team was led by Mumbai partner Niloufer Lam, while the A&O team was led by James Grandolfo, head of the firm’s capital markets practice in the Asia-Pacific region.
“Despite economic uncertainties in the global market, the successful closing of this transaction is a reflection of international investor confidence in India,” said Grandolfo in a statement. “We are delighted to have been involved in this issuance by the State Bank of India which was subject to very high expectations for the offering.”
Barclays, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan, Merrill Lynch, and UBS acted as joint lead managers and book runners for the offering. J. Sagar Associates, led by Mumbai partner Dina Wadia, acted as Indian legal counsel to the joint lead managers and book runners, while Linklaters acted as international counsel to the lead managers. The Linklaters team was led by Hong Kong partner Pam Shores.
Ranajit Dam is Southeast Asia Editor at ALB. Follow us on Twitter:@ALB_Magazine.
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