Borrowing cost for companies to go up on Sebi's new framework

According to Care Ratings, the challenge for corporates would be to look at two sources of fund-raising and bear the additional expense of the cost of interest

Indian-listed companies rated AA and above, having an outstanding debt of more than Rs 100 crore, will have to tap the bond market from April 1 for a quarter of their incremental long-term borrowing needs, according to a circular by the Securities Exchange Board of India (Sebi), but firms contend that it will jack up their borrowing cost and may not be very practical.

The rule is valid only for long-term borrowings, but both bond arrangers and corporate treasury officials say the bond market doesn’t offer adequate bandwidth to borrow long-term money beyond two years and projects cannot be done based