The real estate and civil engineering company is preparing to raise around 250 billion rupees ($2.84 billion) through a two-year zero-coupon bond issue, the bankers, who could not be named because they are not authorised to speak to media, said.
The funds will be used to refinance its outstanding 88.15 billion rupees in high-yield notes maturing in April 2026 and another loan, as well as for other debt-related and corporate purposes.
Indian government bonds saw a significant rise on Thursday, fueled by substantial buying over the past two days, widely believed to be from the central bank. This surge has boosted market sentiment and increased expectations for imminent open market bond purchases by the Reserve Bank of India, aiming to ease pressure on the bond market.
Goswami Infratech and Deutsche Bank did not respond to Reuters requests for comment.
The new issue will be secured by the Shapoorji Pallonji Group’s 9.2% stake in Tata Sons, held via its subsidiary Cyrus Investments.
Deutsche Bank, which arranged Goswami Infratech’s previous 143 billion rupee bond deal in June 2023, is expected to lead this issuance as well. The company has already repaid more than a third of the earlier bond, which carried a coupon of 18.5%, according to Care Ratings, which maintains a BB- rating on the papers. “The book-building process is expected to witness completion by middle of January, with the issuance set to close by end of January,” one of the bankers said.
SP Group’s senior management is on a non-deal roadshow this week to brief investors on recent business developments and gauge appetite for what could be India’s largest-ever corporate bond issue.
The group has been reaching out to newer investors in order to diversify the sources of funding, and is confident that the coupon for the current issue would be lower than the previous sale.
($1 = 88.5950 Indian rupees)
