State Bank of India buys nearly 40% of Reliance's $1.35 billion debt sale

By Khushi Malhotra and Dharamraj Dhutia

MUMBAI, Sept 30 (Reuters) - State Bank of India SBI.NS, the country's largest lender, led the demand for Reliance Industries' RELI.NS 130-billion-rupee ($1.35 billion) 10-year debt sale completed on Wednesday, according to five sources familiar with the transaction.

The state-run bank is estimated to have bought bonds worth nearly 50 billion rupees, or about 40% of the offering, they said. The bonds were rated "AAA" by rating agencies Crisil and CareEdge, and carried an annual coupon of 7.90%.

An AAA rating is the highest credit rating, indicating an exceptionally strong capacity to meet debt obligations and a very low risk of default.

Indian companies have accelerated domestic borrowing to secure funding costs before a potentially tighter monetary-policy stance from the Reserve Bank of India in the wake of high energy prices stoking inflation.

The sources requested anonymity as they are not authorised to speak to the media.

ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund, SBI Pension Fund, and ICICI Prudential Life Insurance were among the largest investors in the issue, a source said.

None of the companies responded immediately to Reuters emails seeking comment.

Since long-dated high-quality papers are always in scarce supply, banks and insurers lapped it up even at a marginal premium, one of the investors said.

The transaction follows the oil-to-telecom conglomerate's 120-billion-rupee five-year bond sale two weeks ago, priced at a 7.47% coupon.

It was the group's first rupee debt issuance since November 2023, when it raised 200 billion rupees in what was then the largest local-currency bond sale by an Indian non-financial company.

Delhi International Airport and miner Vedanta are among the companies that have already issued rupee-denominated notes this week, while Sun Pharmaceutical Industries is considering a bond sale of about 100 billion rupees.