Press Trust Of India reported that as part of its strategy to mop up capital internationally, TATA Steel has raised USD 1.5 billion (about INR 9,000 crore) in a dual tranche bond sale, making it the largest such deal by the Tata group firm.

The dollar money was raised by the company's wholly owned subsidiary in Singapore, ABJA Investments, and the peak order book of the issue was USD 11 billion across tranches. The dual tranche includes USD 500 million unsecured bonds with a coupon rate of 4.5% due on 31 January 2020 and the remaining USD 1 billion 10 year bond carrying a coupon rate of 5.9%.

Mr Koushik Chatterjee, group executive director (finance and corporate) at TATA Steel said that “This is TATA Steel's debut US dollar bond issuance and forms part of the company's long term financing strategy to raise capital internationally. The proceeds would be deployed as per the strategic plan of the company, including offshore investment.”

Mr Chatterjee said that “It was heartening to get such an enormous response from high quality investors across Asia, Europe and West Asia. The successful bond issue enables the company to diversify the investor base, lengthen maturity profile and optimise the financing and capital structure.”

Roadshows for the issue were organised simultaneously in Hong Kong, Singapore and London and on the back of overwhelming investor response, the transaction was launched on 24 July. By the time books closed at the end of the day, the peak order book was USD 11 billion across tranches. The deal was distributed 59% into Asia and 41% into EMEA and others to a wide number of long term buy and hold institutional investors, banks and private banks.