Bharat Bond ETF: Govt to use greenshoe option, retain excess subscription

The government has decided to exercise the greenshoe option and retain the excess subscription received in both the three- and 10-year series of the Bharat Bond Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF).
 
The three-year category received applications for units worth Rs 6,982 crore, an over-subscription of 2.3 times against an issue size of Rs 3,000 crore. The ten-year category received Rs 5,413 crore, or 1.4 times the issue size of Rs 4,000 crore.
 
With about 55,000 applications received, the new fund offering saw robust retail participation with strong support from digital channels.
 

The ETF opened on December 12. On the first day, institutional investors participated to build the anchor book.

 
According to market sources, public and private sector banks, along with insurers, including Life Insurance Corporation of India, had participated in the anchor book of the ETF.
 
To allow access to investors without demat accounts, the ETF was also offered through a fund-of-fund structure by Edelweiss AMC.
 
Also, sources say, the ETF  saw strong participation from non-resident investors, high-net-worth investors, top-tier companies and foreign institutional investors.
 
With the management fee pegged at a paltry 0.0005 percentage of the investor assets, there were question marks on how the distribution costs would get absorbed. Edelweiss AMC tapped digital platforms of Paytm Money, HDFC Securities, Zerodha and ICICI Securities for distribution of the ETF, besides other channels.

 
According to officials, depending upon the success of the product, the government may even consider making AA-rated PSU bonds part of the ETF. “For now, AAA-rated bonds have been included so that retail investors can repose their faith in the product,” a source said.