THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Pinarayi Vijayan is set to become the first Chief Minister in the country to attend the listing ceremony at London Stock Exchange (LSE) after he received an invitation from the LSE Group to attend the listing of KIIFB’s masala bonds, scheduled on May 17.
The listing of masala bonds will be held on LSE’s International Securities Market. State government-controlled Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB) had recently raised `21.5 billion (`2150 crore) through the masala bonds. With its debut masala bond, KIIFB has also become the first sub-sovereign entity in India to tap the offshore rupee international bond market.
Confirming the invitation, the CM’s office said it will soon approach the Centre for its clearance for attending the function. Meanwhile, it is learnt that the CM, upon receiving the clearance from the Center, might consider clubbing the invitation with that of a programme of the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR), at Geneva in Switzerland in May.
Earlier, in a statement issued by the LSE, Darko Hajdukovic, the Head of Fixed Income, Funds and Analytics, UK Primary Markets, London Stock Exchange, has been quoted as saying: “London Stock Exchange warmly congratulates KIIFB on its landmark debut masala bond. Our markets have enabled issuers to raise over $7.5 billion equivalent, allowing masala bonds to evolve from a specialist segment to a mainstream asset class. KIIFB’s bond highlights London’s status as a leading international financing centre, offering issuers access to the deepest pool of long-term international investor capital as well as best in class listing solutions.”
The statement also featured KIIFB CEO K M Abraham as saying: “KIIFB is the first sub-sovereign entity in India to access the international debt capital markets in this manner. This transaction has realised our objective of diversifying our sources of funding by accessing capital from international investors.” Meanwhile, as the investments in masala bonds by the Canadian company CDPQ, which also had stakes in the SNC-Lavalin, snowballs into a political controversy, CPM state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan said the company had the right to invest in the masala bond.
