The State Bank of India SBI priced its debut 144A issue last Thursday night in the form of a benchmark $1 billion bond. This is the first 144AReg-S offer to be priced by a quasi-sovereign from India and may thus have opened the door to a new base of US investors for such issuers. For the accounts buying into the deal, the new SBI paper is as close to an Indian sovereign that they can get in the 144A market.
The bonds were issued by SBI's London branch and have a maturity date of July 27, 2015. They pay a coupon on 4.5% and were reoffered at 99.708 to yield 4.566%.