India's first blue bond draw nears as issuers line up, bankers say

Business Recorder says India's first blue bond sale is close, with a state-run lender and a civic body in Gujarat both aiming to enter the market before September ends. Citing a company official and two merchant bankers, the report said the offering is near. Blue bonds are debt securities that raise money for ocean and water projects and appeal to investors bound by mandates to back environmental protection.

Sagarmala Finance Corp, a state-owned maritime lender, is weighing bonds worth up to 10 billion Indian rupees ($104.5 million), and its managing director L.V.S. Sudhakar Babu told Reuters the sale could be scheduled for the closing week of September. It funds port links, shipbuilding and coastal roads. Vadodara Municipal Corp, in the hometown of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is waiting for approvals before issuing 2 billion Indian rupees of bonds, bankers said, speaking anonymously.

India Ratings rated the Vadodara bonds AA+, with proceeds for a pumping station, a water treatment unit and a clear water reservoir. An investor expects the Indian municipal bond market to grow at least twofold to $1 billion by fiscal year-end, and Rajkiran Rai of National Bank for Financing Infrastructure and Development forecasts at least 50 billion rupees of fresh issuance through March. Over nine years, 22 cities in seven states have borrowed roughly 45 billion rupees, with 17.50 billion rupees raised in the latest fiscal year.