IIFL Finance nets $500 million in overseas bond sales

Mumbai: IIFL Finance has raised $500 million by selling international dollar bonds to investors across the world in an issue which was priced on Wednesday. The 3.25 year issue was priced at 7.6% after building an order book of close to $2 billion from large institutional investors.

This is the first dollar bond issued out of India since January, when ReNew Energy raised $600 million by issuing a five-year bond. Since then, geopolitical tensions, particularly stemming from the US-Israel attack on Iran, have led to high overseas yields which are beyond the expectations of Indian companies looking to raise funds from abroad.

Nirmal Jain, founder and managing director at IIFL Finance, told ET the successful issue comes at a time of heightened volatilities, pressure on the rupee and capital outflows from India.


"This $500 million social bond is a defining moment not just for IIFL Finance, but for India’s capital markets. As the first significant international bond offering from India following the recent geopolitical disruption, it reaffirms that India’s established institutions remain credible destinations for long-term global capital — at a time when the country needs it most," Jain said.

The bond is also the first social issue from IIFL Finance. The proceeds of this issue will be used to lend to economically weaker sections of the society which include loans to MSMEs (micro, small and medium enterprises), gold loans and loan against property.

HSBC, Standard Chartered, JP Morgan and Emirates NBD were the bankers to the issue.

Prathamesh Sahasrabudhe, MD & Head, Capital Markets, India, Standard Chartered Bank said, “This marks the market reopening dollar bond transaction for Indian issuers since the onset of the West Asia crisis. Thanks to regular investor engagement carried out by IIFL management over the time, the transaction garnered strong response from global investors. The supply demand technicals continue to play in favour of Indian credit with this transaction providing much needed diversification play to regional investors.”

For IIFL Finance, this is the first issue since it raised money from the international bond market in January 2025, when it raised $325 million at 8.3%. It had raised a further tap on of $100 million in March 2025 in continuation of the issue.

Fairfax-backed IIFL Finance had assets under management of Rs 1.8 lakh crore on March 30. It has 5,000 branches across smaller towns and rural areas of India.