Glenmark sells maiden USD bonds, raises $200 mn at 4.5%

Leading drugs maker Glenmark Pharmaceuticals has raised USD 200 million from international investors, making this the first-ever USD dollar bond sale by a domestic pharma company.

Investment banking sources told PTI that the issue was so successful that the orderbook touched 12 times the issue size at $2.4 billion, helping the company make good bargain on pricing.

The company has priced the five-year bonds at 4.50%, the banking sources added.

While the company refused to comment on the sale process, the investment banking sources further said, the company, which net almost 70% of its revenue from overseas markets, will use the proceeds to retire forex debt. For Glenmark, the US is the largest market with almost a third of its total income.

 

The city-based company has a little over $200 million in foreign debt raised through the ECB route four years ago.

The city-based pharma company had launched a road show last week for the issue, which will be traded on the Singapore Exchange.

The company had appointed global investment bankers like Barclays, Citi, HSBC, DBS and ANZ to manage the sale process.

It can be noted that the record forex fund raising when domestic companies sold over $21 billion worth of debt to overseas investors, the fund rasing has been ebbing out as overseas interest rates have been on a northward push.

The biggest bond sale in the entire 2016 so far was the $1 billion raised by ONGC Videsh last week to fund its asset buys in Russia.

Market sources say with the economy sort of picking up momentum, more companies may tap this route more often now. The Exim Bank is reportedly planning to enter the market sometime early next month.