NTPC pre-closes oversubscribed Rs 700-cr tax-free bond issue

State-run NTPC Ltd has pre-closed its public issue of Rs 700 crore tax-free bonds as it was oversubscribed by 11.04 times on the opening day on Wednesday. “In view of oversubscription, the Company is pre-closing the public issue of <g data-gr-id="22">tax free</g> bonds on September 24, 2015,” the power major has informed BSE.

“By the end of Day 1 ie by 5 pm the issue was oversubscribed by 11.04 times <g data-gr-id="57">of </g>the base issue size of Rs 400 crore and 6.31 times of the overall issue size of Rs 700 crore,” the company had said in a statement. The retail portion was oversubscribed by 6.60 times (of the total issue size allocated to retail), reflecting a huge confidence of retail investors in the company, it said. A total demand of over Rs 4,400 crore was generated against the issue size of Rs 700 crore. NTPC’s issue was the first tax-free bond issuance in this fiscal, it said.

Earlier in July, the government had approved the plan to raise Rs 1,000 crore through tax-free bonds, including Rs 700 crore through public issue. NTPC was among seven state-run entities, including NHAI and IRFC, which were given permission to raise Rs 40,000 crore in the current fiscal through tax-free bonds. The 40 per cent of the issue i.e Rs 280 crore was reserved for allocation to <g data-gr-id="18">retail</g> category. The remaining issue was for non-retail investors including QIB, corporates and High Networth Indians.