L&T Infra Finance today said it has raised Rs 530 crore through its retail tax-saving bond issue and announced the launch of another issue to mop up about Rs 570 crore at a lower coupon rate of 8.7%.
The company has raised Rs 530 crore through the first tranche, which had a coupon rate of 9% and closed last month, chairman of L&T Infra Finance's parent company, L&T Finance, YM Deosthalee, told reporters here.
When asked why the company is offering a lower coupon rate of 8.7% for the second tranche, the company's CEO Suneet Maheshwari said coupon rates have to be at par with the yield on benchmark securities and the decrease is in sync with the yield movement over the last month.
"You can also say that this is an indication that we are at the peak of the interest rate cycle and the rates will be going down," he said.
L&T Infra had earlier said it would raise Rs 1,100 crore through the tax saving bonds targeted at the retail investors this fiscal.
Faced with an uphill task of meeting the finance requirements of the infrastructure structure, which is estimated to require up to $1 trillion in investments during the 12th Plan period, the government has incentivised individual tax payers who subscribe to infra bonds.
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Meanwhile, in the wake of stress on the power sector portfolio of lenders, L&T Infrastructure Finance today said it has cut on lending to conventional sources experiencing structural issues and has been biased towards companies in the renewable space this fiscal.
"There have been issues with regard to fuel availability in the coal and thermal space... Sensing this, we have increased our disbursements to the solar, wind and hydro electric projects," Deosthalee said.
Renewable firms' share has grown to nearly half of the company's power portfolio, he said. Power is the single biggest category in the total asset book with a 37% share.
Deosthalee said L&T Infra's book does not have any stress but underlined the need for getting through with the ills of the power sector for the sake of the economy.
Power projects have been faced with issues around fuel availability as the biggest coal supplier Coal India is not supplying enough and even the newer projects are getting delayed for want of requisite clearances.