Power major NTPC's tax-free bond issue oversubscribed 3 times

NTPC CMD Roy Choudhury

STATE-owned India's largest power major, NTPC on Tuesday received an overwhelming feedback for its bond issue by collecting Rs 3,310 crore. "The issue was oversubscribed by 3.3 times. As against Rs 1,000 crore, NTPC has already collected about Rs 3,310 crore, Rs 2,310 crore above the base size," the Maharatna company said in a statement.
The tax-free bond issue which opened on Monday was earlier to close on December 16 but will formally...
close today (Wednesday), the company said.
This is NTPC's first bond issue after a gap of over two decades. Under the offer, the company issued tax-free secured redeemable non-convertible bonds. The money raised through the issue will be used for refinancing for meeting the debt requirement in ongoing projects.
NTPC further said the QIB (Qualified Institutional Buyers) oversubscribed by 4.2 times, collecting Rs 423 crore against allocation of Rs 100 crore.
"Corporates contributed Rs 1,374 crore against allocation of Rs 250 crore, oversubscribed by 5.5 times," the statement said. The HNI (High Networth Individuals) also added Rs 851 crore against allocation of Rs 250 crore and over-subscription of 3.4 times.
The power major last month filed a prospectus with the Registrar of Companies (RoC), Delhi and Haryana in connection with its proposed public issue of tax-free bonds.
The present installed capacity of NTPC is 42,454 MW (including 5,474 MW through JVs) comprising of 23 NTPC stations (16 Coal based stations, seven combined cycle gas or liquid fuel based stations), seven joint venture (JV) stations (six coal-based and one gas-based) and two renewable energy projects. The company added 10,000 MW in the last three years, chairman and managing director of the power producer, Dr Arup Roy Choudhury said.
The power major plans to add another 14,000 MW to its total capacity by the end of 2016-17. Roy Choudhury said the company aims to become 1,28,000 MW utility in coming years.
The power company has registered a growth of 4.49 percent of power in this fiscal in comparison to the last fiscal. The power production last year through the NTPC run power plants was 222.068 billion units which increased to 232.028 billion units.