Bank of India starts offering dollar bonds

Move is part of lender's goal of raising $2bln to fund its international operations.

Bank of India is offering $500 million in 5 1/2-year dollar bonds, ushering in what market participants believe will be a rich pipeline of issuance from the south Asian nation.

The bond sale comes a week after Standard & Poor's Ratings Services restored its stable outlook on ratings of India's government and banks, a move which in effect removed the imminent danger of a downgrade, which may have made some investors wary of buying Indian bonds.

Bank of India's offering is part of a plan to raise $2 billion over the medium term. The state-owned bank will use the proceeds to fund its international operations and for general corporate purposes.

The investment-grade bank has set final yield guidance between 2.35 percentage point and 2.40 percentage point over comparable U.S. Treasuries, narrower than initial guidance of around 2.45 percentage point, people familiar with the deal said. Barclays Capital, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, and Royal Bank of Scotland Group are in charge of the deal.

View the full story in the Wall Street Journal.