Atria Power plans US$ 500 million dollar bond sale

Mumbai: Atria Power Corp. Ltd, a Bengaluru-based renewable power producer, plans to sell dollar bonds worth $500 million and has hired investment bankers for the process, according to two people aware of the development.

Atria has hired Barclays Plc, JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Swiss investment bank UBS AG to run the process, one of the two people said on condition of anonymity.

Atria, which is backed by GE Energy Financial Services, is seeking to expand capacity. Atria Power plans to develop 1,000MW of power projects with an investment of Rs3,000 crore over the next five years.

Atria Power runs wind, hydro and solar power projects. Its wind power projects include a 50MW plant at Kukru, Madhya Pradesh; a 25.5MW unit in Andhra Pradesh; and a 50MW plant at Kayathar, Tamil Nadu.

“Atria plans to launch dollar bonds to raise $300-500 million with a five-year tenure. However, the dates are not yet finalised as the uncertainty remains on the dollar bond market following the US treasury yield hike,” the second person said on condition of anonymity.

The borrowing cost for dollar bond issuers may increase as the US Treasury yields are likely to go up further. The US Federal Reserve raised the benchmark lending rate a quarter-point last month. Policy makers continue to project a total of three interest rate hikes this year. In the forecasts, Fed officials projected a median federal funds rate of 2.9% by the end of 2019, implying three rate hikes next year, compared with two moves seen in the last round of forecasts in December.

Emails sent to Sunder Raju, a director at Atria Power, went unanswered while spokespersons for UBS, JP Morgan and Barclays declined to comment.

Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.