SBI raising $250 million foreign currency loans
20 Mar 2004
The loan will be a short-term facility maturing in 364 days and has been priced at approximately 32-33 basis points over the London inter-bank offered rate (Libor), banking sources said.
The Citigroup is arranging the loan. An senior SBI official said the bank has centralised its overseas borrowing plans to cut down the cost of funds. "Our overseas balance sheet grew by over 40 per cent last year. This money can be disbursed to Indian companies looking for dollar loans. The assets will be booked overseas," he said.
Bankers
dealing in overseas syndication of foreign currency loans
said that the rates compare well in the international
market. This is because the ongoing rates for such a tenure
is around 40 basis points
over the Libor. For the sake of comparison, in rupee terms
the rates come to 2.25 per cent if the loan has to be
fully swapped into rupees.