New Delhi, Jan 5 (IANS): India Exim Bank has raised $1 billion by issuing 10-year bond at the coupon rate of 2.25 per cent

In a statement, the bank said that the coupon rate of 2.25 per cent is at a record low for any 10-year bond issuance from India.

The funds will be used by the bank to support Indian project exports, overseas investment by way of long-term credit and its export lines of credit portfolio, it said.

"The issue was launched early morning in Eastern markets (Hong Kong and Singapore) and within three hours was over-subscribed twice. The Bank then tightened the initial price guidance of 'CT10+185' bps by 40 bps to end at 'CT10+145' bps, well inside the fair value point on the curve," the statement said.

At close, with US investors also coming in, the issue was oversubscribed by more than 3.5 times, with several high-quality issuers having to settle for less than their requested allocations.

In terms of geographic distribution, the bonds were distributed 55 per cent in Asia, 29 per cent in the US and 16 per cent from EMEA region. The bonds were distributed to high quality investors with around 68 per cent distributed to fund managers, 17 per cent to sovereign wealth funds, central banks and insurance companies, 14 per cent to banks and 1 per cent to private banks and others.

Barclays, Citigroup, HSBC, J.P. Morgan, MUFG and Standard Chartered acted as Joint Lead Managers and book runners for the offering.

David Rasquinha, Managing Director of India Exim Bank, said: "W" are delighted to open the debt markets in 2021 with this signal achievement - a billion dollars for ten years at a record low coupon. With the upsurge in GST numbers, improvement in GDP, and the recent approval of vaccines, the confidence in the India story is surging once again."

With a strong market opening trade from India Exim Bank, many other Indian issuers are likely to follow suit to access the foreign currency bond market, he added.