Yes Bank Raises US$600 Million for 5 Year Tenor Under Their US$1 Billion MTN Program

YES BANK, India’s fourth largest private sector bank has successfully completed issuance of its maiden US$ 600 million bond issue in the international debt markets. The Bond issuance is for a tenor of 5 years and is rated Baa3 by Moody’s Investors Service. The Bond will be listed on the London Stock Exchange International Securities Market (LSE ISM), the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading SGX), and the India International Exchange IFSC at GIFT City, Gandhinagar.

Having initially launched the deal at 150 basis points over the treasury yield, the Bank was able to achieve a final pricing of 130 basis points over equivalent 5 year U.S treasury yield which is the lowest spread over Treasury for a debut fixed rate International bond issuance by an Indian bank with a minimum issue size of US$ 500 million. CLSA Ltd, HSBC, JP Morgan Securities, Merrill Lynch International, Nomura, Standard Chartered and YES BANK (IFSC) acted as Joint Book Running Lead Managers (BRLM’s) for the offering.

BSE’s India International Exchange (“India INX”)  welcomes YES BANK’s maiden USD 600 million bond issue on its Global Securities Market (“GSM”), India’s first capital raising platform for international investors in any currency, located at the Gujarat International Finance Tec City (“GIFT City”) IFSC.

The bonds received an overwhelming response from international investors and saw a final order book, at a spread of 130 basis points, being oversubscribed by >1.83x from over 90 accounts. In terms of investor type, the split was 46% to asset managers, 38% to banks, 11% to insurance companies and 5% to private banks. In terms of geographic distribution, Asian accounts received 58% of the allocation, EMEA received 41% and offshore US accounts received 1%.

The proceeds will be used to fund the bank’s IFSC Banking Unit (IBU) in Gift City and expand IBU’s rapidly growing business opportunities. The bond issuance is aligned to the Government of India’s commitment to building a high-tech financial hub in the country.

V. Bala, MD and CEO, India INX said, “YES BANK was the first Bank to set up at GIFT IFSC and India INX the first International Exchange. Our partnership is in line with the Prime Minister’s IFSC vision to make IFSC world class and to drive the mission to become a price setter in derivatives and to become a fund raising destination. We are glad and excited that our listing rules and process efficiency have been appreciated by issuers and has been one of our key differentiators.  My heartiest congratulations to YES BANK on raising USD 600 million and the diversity of investors they have attracted.”

Commenting on the bond issuance, Rana Kapoor, MD & CEO, YES BANK, said, “This landmark issue is the first foreign currency bond offering by YES BANK under our newly established MTN program, and the significant over-subscription as well as high quality investor base is testament to the commitment reposed by global investors in the Bank. I am sure this will further strengthen India’s position as the preferred investment destination for global investors. As the 1^st Bank to have begun operations at GIFT, we remain committed to expanding our operations at the IBU, Gandhinagar.”

YES BANK has continued its leadership at GIFT City IFSC as the 1st IBU to have started operations in October 2015. With this, the Bank has demonstrated its ability to leverage newer geographies and currencies to fund the bank’s expanding franchise at GIFT City. YES BANK’s IBU also continues to be the largest amongst the operational IBUs with Balance Sheet size crossing US$2 Billion as on December 2017.