Joint global co-ordinators Barclays, Citi and Standard Chartered, along with joint bookrunners DBS, Mizuho Securities and MUFG, opened books for the Reg S notes at the 200bp over US Treasuries area.
Proceeds from the Singapore-listed senior bonds will be used to repay existing foreign currency debt. They will be issued by wholly-owned subsidiary Oil India International, and guaranteed by Baa2/—/BBB- rated Oil India. The notes are expected to be rated the same.
State-owned Oil India completed a $650m bridge loan late last year to support its joint acquisitions of oilfields in Russia with Bharat Petroleum Corp and Indian Oil Corp. The targets included TYNGD, bought from Rosneft subsidiary RN Razvedka I Dobycha, and a portion of JSC Vankorneft from Rosneft Oil Co.
Oil India has outstanding notes from its enormously popular dual tranche transaction in April 2014. The company’s debut deal was split between a $500m 3.875 2019 and a $500m 5.375% 2024, on the back of a more than $8bn order book.
The issuer is the second largest state-owned exploration and production company in India, making up about 9.7% of the total production of crude oil in the country, and 8.8% of the country’s natural gas production, according to Moody’s.
After its incorporation as a private limited company in 1959, Oil India was listed on the BSE and NSE in 2009. As of the end of June 2016, the company was 67.64% owned by the Indian government.