22nd April 2005: The board of KEI Industries has approved raising up to $15 million by way of Global Depositary Receipts, American Depositary Receipts, foreign convertible bonds or private placement, the company told the Bombay Stock Exchange today. Shares in KEI Industries, which makes electric and telephone cables, were up 1.2 per cent at Rs 95 on BSE.

21st April 2005: Corporation Bank plans to raise $50 million to $100 million through a one-year foreign currency loan, a senior bank official said today. The borrowing is likely to be completed in a week and the funds will be used for normal banking operations, the bank's general manager, M Narendra said.

21st April 2005: Satyam Computer Services said today that it had filed for an American Depositary Receipts (ADS) offer against existing domestic shares. It aims to convert up to 30 million domestic shares into 15 million ADS, but Satyam did not say when the offer will be launched. Bankers say such issues are aimed at improving floating stock in the US market and allow local shareholders to capture the premium enjoyed by the US listed stocks of Indian companies. Satyam's New York-listed ADRs closed Wednesday at a 24% premium over its local shares.

20th April 2005: Indus Bank Ltd, one of the fastest growing new-generation private-sector banks in the country has mobilised Rs 1700 million in its Tier-II bond issue during March 2005. The issue is listed on the Wholesale Debt Market (WDM) segment of National Stock Exchange of India (NSE) and is rated by ICRA (LA+) and Fitch [A+ (ind)].

The privately placed unsecured redeemable non-convertible subordinated bonds offered three options, with 63-month (coupon rate 8.1% p. a. and floating rate 1 year INBMK plus 190 bps spread) and 111-month (coupon rate 8.5% p.a.) maturity periods. The issue was to augment the Bank's capital for further asset expansion and implementation of Basel-II norms. AK Capital Services Ltd. acted as the Sole Arranger to the issue.

"We are very pleased with the response garnered by our Tier-II bond issue. This will help us in maintaining our CAR at adequate levels in a Basel-II scenario. Even after this issue, we still have scope to raise more Tier-II funds. We will, explore that option as and when we need further capital," said Bhaskar Ghose, MD & CEO, of the Bank.

20th April 2005: Apollo Hospitals plans to raise $135 million (about Rs 590 crore) through global depository receipts (GDRs) that may be listed either on the London or Luxemburg exchange. The capital is being raised to upgrade existing facilities and fund acquisitions in outsourcing and healthcare sectors.

Along with the issue of GDRs, the promoters would be allotted equity warrants of 2.5 per cent of the existing capital. The warrants would allow the promoters to retain their stake at the current level of 31.83 per cent, said Suneeta Reddy, director, finance.

The GDR has been triggered by the need to fund the company’s strategy to consolidate existing operations and look at acquisitions, Reddy added. Apollo’s $ 135 million GDR issue will be split in to two parts. About $ 75 million would be issue of fresh capital, while $ 65 million would be a sponsored issue. In the sponsored issue existing shareholders can offload their shares.