India Infrastructure Finance Company (IIFCL) is planning to borrow $1 billion from overseas investors, which could be its biggest foreign-currency loan, while also exploring a separate $400 million funding from the Asian Development Bank, an executive said.
The company is the latest to tap into the foreign lending market after the Reserve Bank of India introduced a series of measures to boost dollar inflows and support the rupee. The measures include allowing state-run firms and banks to raise foreign currency funds to hedge their forex exposure at a subsidised rate.
The $1 billion loan will be for 15 years at an interest rate of under 7%, and the company is talking to the Asian Development Bank for a separate 20-year loan of roughly $400 million, Palash Srivastava, IIFCL deputy managing director, told Reuters on Monday.
IIFL doubled the 15-year loan's size to $1 billion from an initial $500 million after the RBI's incentive, he added.
Reuters has previously reported that three Indian development finance institutions plan to raise at least $1.5 billion through foreign-currency bank loans under the RBI facility.
Further, IIFCL is weighing a debut dollar bond of around $100 million by year-end, Srivastava said.
"The bond will likely be in the three- to five-year tenor,” he added.
Dollar borrowings have picked up following the opening of the RBI's subsidised borrowing window.
HDFC Bank raised $750 million via a five-year bond, while Axis Bank priced $800 million through a dual-tranche dollar bond sale. State-run Power Finance Corp raised $300 million via dollar bonds.
State Bank of India and Bank of Baroda are also planning overseas fundraising.
