JSW Steel raises $500 mn from overseas investors, proceeds of notes to be used to repay ECB

New Delhi: Private steel maker JSW Steel on Wednesday raised $500 million (around Rs 3,500 crore) through an international bonds issue, according to a regulatory filing. The five-year dollar money sale saw high demand from investors across Europe and Asia, and had attracted bids worth $1.75 billion, merchant banking sources said. [caption id=“attachment_4292949” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. News 18.[/caption] The company, which is rated one notch below the investment grade, managed a coupon of 5.95 percent, they said. The company in a filing to BSE on Wednesday said that its board committee has approved the issuance bonds to raise $500 million. “The finance committee of the board of directors of JSW Steel Ltd (the company) has approved the issuance of fixed rate senior unsecured notes (the ‘Notes’) aggregating to $500 million,” JSW Steel said. The finance committee has also approved the pricing, tenure and other terms of the notes. “The proceeds of the notes will be used by the company to repay external commercial borrowing (ECB) loans, for capital expenditure or any other purpose…,” it said. The issue had received Ba2 rating with a positive outlook by global ratings agency Moody’s. The fund raising was in line with a May 2017 board resolution to raise up to $1 billion in one or more tranches of international bond sales, the company informed the exchanges. The company, which has an installed capacity of 18 million tonne, is intending to use the proceeds to retire debt and also for capital expenditure, according to Moody’s. “Even after strong re-opening of international bond markets for Indian high yield issuers, the response to JSW Steel has been overwhelming,” Amrish Baliga, the managing director and head financing at Deutsche Bank, the lead- arranger, said.