ICICI Bank to raise $500M through yuan

ICICI Bank plans to raise US$ 500 million through a Yuan bond being managed by Standard Chartered Bank.

The bank has set a final guidance for its three year bond at 4.9%.

Indian financial institutions like IDBI Bank and Exim Bank have also tapped the Asian bond market to give them access to new set of investors.

"Institutions are able to raise funds at cheaper cost,'' said Jujhar Singh, MD and head of debt capital market South Asia Standard Chartered Bank.

Banks can also raise funds without compressing the size of the issue and paying a liquidity premium,'' he said.

If ICICI Bank chooses to swap the entire issue into US dollars the cost will be 255 basis point above three month Libor (which is at 0.38%.) ,'' said a treasury head of a foreign bank.

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