CFO Asia rates Tata-Corus deal among Asia's best
The Hindu — December 26, 2007

Tatas' Corus takeover, ICICI bond issue and Hutch-Essar sale to Vodafone have been named as Asia's top three deals for 2007 by an Economist Group publication.

The winners for "Asia's Best Deals of the Year Awards", published in the latest issue of the CFO Asia magazine, include ICICI Bank's $ 2 billion debt offering, Tatas' multi billion dollar acquisition of Anglo-Dutch steelmaker Corus and Hutchison's sale to Vodafone of its stake in Indian mobile operator Hutch-Essar at the top three positions.

After issuing a $ 750 million five-year bond issue in January, India's biggest private lender ICICI Bank returned to the market in September and agreed to pay an interest of 237.5 basis points above the US treasuries due to the global credit crunch, against 174.8 basis points for the earlier deal.

However, at $ 2 billion, it was the biggest single-tranche bond offering ever in Asia, excluding Japan, the magazine noted.

The global bond offering was launched a week after the US Federal Reserve cut the interest rates by 50 basis points and appeared to have calmed the market. The deal closed on the same day with an order book three times oversubscribed.

The deal helped revive the Asian bond market as investors had started fleeing in the wake of the subprime crisis and was followed by other companies raising more than two billion dollars through bond offerings.

According to the magazine, the $ 2 billion bond issue, along with $ 750 million raised in January and 4.9 billion dollars follow-on equity offering in June, ICICI Bank can afford to wait out a financial crisis.