Companies' debt sale dips 19.5% to $52 billion; overseas bonds up 60% at $16 billion

MUMBAI: India Inc raised $51.8 billion in debt during 2013 through primary bond sales, 19.5 per cent down from the record $64.3 billion in the previous year.

The offshore US dollar-denominated bond sale by domestic companies touched a record $12 billion, up 47 per cent after surpassing last year's record annual volume of $8.1 billion, according to a report.

According to investment bankers, the overall international debt raising (including non-$raising) by domestic firms touched a new high of $15.8 billion, up from $10 billion the preceding calendar year.

Telecom major Bharti led the pack, raising $2.25 billion in overseas bonds, followed by Reliance ($800 million in a perpetual bond sale), ICICI Bank (close to a $1 billion in multiple currencies), SBI ($750 million), Exim Bank over $1 billion in multiple currencies, HDFC ($500 million).

Debts raised during the October-December quarter touched $11.1 billion, a jump of 147.6 per cent on sequential basis from the third quarter, but down 32.6 per cent from the year-ago period, as per Thomson Reuters report.

According to fee estimates by Thomson Reuters, i-bankers raked in $98.1 million in fees in the year, which is a 22.2 per cent decline from the previous year.

The report further said, the majority of bond sales were issued by the financial sector players capturing 65.9 per cent of the market share worth $34.2 billion in proceeds, but this too is down 26.9 per cent from the previous year.

Energy and power companies occupy the second slot raising $7.2 billion, down 7.1 per cent from 2012, accounting for 13.9 per cent of the market share.

Notably, telcos saw a significant increase in proceeds this year with $3.6 billion raised from 8 new bond sales compared to $287.9 million from two issues in 2012.