RBI's $15-billion dollar-rupee swaps helping Indian companies raise cheaper overseas loans
Non-bank lenders and companies could spend less on foreign-currency loans as the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) $15-billion dollar-rupee swaps, aimed at boosting domestic liquidity, have also helped reduce the benchmark rate used to price currency risks in the country.
The Mumbai Interbank Forward Offer Rate (MIFOR), which gauges currency risk when Indian companies bring dollar funds into India, has fallen over the past month after the RBI bought dollars from banks with an agreement to sell them back three years later, indicating the central bank is ready to lend dollars at a cheaper rate to the market.
In a month, the three-year MIFOR has retreated to 6.36% from 6.67% about a month ago.
Non-bank lender IIFL Finance was the first to take advantage of this opportunity, raising $100 million adding to the $325 million it had raised from a 3.5-year bond issue it had raised in January. More importantly, the latest money was raised at 8.35%, compared with the 8.75% the company paid for the bond in January.
Nirmal Jain, managing director of IIFL Finance, said the fall in dollar hedging costs has made these bonds much cheaper for the company.
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