Largest ever foreign currency bond issuance from India by RIL

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Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) announced that on January 5, 2022, it has priced a Rule 144A/ Regulation multi-tranche offering aggregating $4 billion, comprising $1.5 bn Senior Unsecured Notes due 2032; $1.75 bn Senior Unsecured Notes due 2052 and $750 million Senior Unsecured Notes due 2062.

The Notes were nearly 3 times oversubscribed with a peak orderbook aggregating $11.5 billion and were priced through RIL’s secondary curve. The Notes have been priced at 120 basis points, 160 basis points and 170 basis points over the respective US Treasuries benchmark. RIL has joined a select group of issuers from Asia to have made jumbo bond issuances. Interest on the Notes will be payable semi-annually in arrears and the Notes shall rank pari passu with all other unsecured and unsubordinated obligations of RIL. The bond proceeds will be primarily used for refinancing of existing borrowings.

“We are extremely pleased with the strong outcome on our multi-tranche long dated USD bond issuance, having issued not only the largest debt capital market transaction at $4 billion but also the tightest credit spreads across each of the long-dated tenors for any corporate in India.”

“The support received from the marquee international capital market investors is reflective of the strength of our underlying businesses with established growth platforms across energy, consumer and technology as well as robustness of our balance sheet. This issue continues the tradition of Reliance being a sophisticated and innovative issuer across the capital structure.” commented Srikanth Venkatachari, Joint Chief Financial Officer of RIL.

This transaction is significant on various counts as it’s the largest ever foreign currency bond issuance from India, tightest ever implied credit spread over the respective US Treasury across each of the 3 tranches by an Indian Corporate, lowest coupon achieved for benchmark 30-year and 40-year issuances by a private sector BBB corporate from Asia ex-Japan, and first ever 40-year tranche by a BBB private sector corporate from Asia ex Japan.

The Notes are rated BBB+ by S&P and Baa2 by Moody’s. BoFA Securities, Citigroup, and HSBC acted as Joint Global Coordinators. BoFA Securities, Citigroup, HSBC, Barclays, JP Morgan and MUFG acted as Joint Active Bookrunners. ANZ, BNP PARIBAS, Credit Agricole CIB, DBS Bank Ltd, Mizuho Securities, SMBC Nikko, Standard Chartered Bank and State Bank of India, London Branch acted as Joint Passive Bookrunners.

The Notes received orders from over 200 accounts in Asia, Europe and the US. In terms of geographic distribution, the Notes were distributed: 53 per cent in Asia, 14 per cent in Europe and 33 per cent in the US. The Notes were distributed to high quality fixed income accounts: 69 per cent to fund managers, 24 per cent to insurance companies, 5 per cent to banks and 2 per cent to public institutions.