Axis Bank on December 9 raised Rs 12,000 crore through Basel-III Tier-2 bonds maturing in 10 years at a coupon rate of 7.88 percent, merchant bankers said.

The bank will utilise 100 percent of the proceeds of the issue for its regular business activities and to meet the demand for financing.

The bonds will be listed on wholesale debt market (WDM) segment of the National Stock Exchange of India Limited (NSE) and the BSE Limited (BSE), which will be the designated stock exchange.

Bonds have been rated 'AAA' with 'stable' outlook by ICRA and India Ratings and Research Pvt Ltd. It have a pay in date of December 13.

The private lender had planned to raise up to Rs 12,000 crore via Basel-III Tier-2 bonds, which included the greenshoe option of Rs 11,000 crore.

In April, Axis Bank had said that its board had approved capital raise proposal up to Rs 35,000 crore by issuing various debt instruments in Indian or foreign currency in domestic/overseas markets in one or more tranches.

In the last few days, most companies and banks are tapping the bond market to raise funds aggressively to meet their funding and working capital needs.

In the past two weeks, some banks have raised more than Rs 10,000 crore through bonds of various tenures, data on the bidding platform showed.

Money market dealers said that banks have been aggressively raising funds to meet credit demand.

Bank credit growth accelerated to 17.2 percent in the quarter ended September 2022 from 7 percent in the same period of the previous year, data from the Reserve Bank of India’s Quarterly Statistics on Deposits and Credit of SCBs: September 2022 showed.

(Source:Money Control)