Indian Bank defers $1-b debt plan

The state-owned lender Indian Bank is putting off its plans to raise $1-billion medium-term notes. Senior bank officials, including chairman TM Bhasin recently went for a road show in Singapore and London, but were disappointed by investor response.

Bank insiders say that investors were asking unrealistically high returns amid a general risk aversion following financial crises faced by European countries like Greece and Italy. Earlier, the Chennai-headquartered bank cancelled plans to raise funds from the local stock market due to a lacklustre demand for IPOs.

The bank was looking at raising 1,500 crore through follow-on issues in the second quarter of this fiscal. Shares of Indian Bank fell marginally to close at 230 on Thursday.