India's SP Group eyes dollar-rupee debt route for fresh funding, sources say

By Dharamraj Dhutia and Khushi Malhotra MUMBAI, Sept 28 (Reuters) — India's Shapoorji Pallonji Group plans to repeat a recent fundraising strategy to meet a payment obligation at a group company after seeking an extension to a debt repayment deadline, two sources familiar with the matter said on Monday. Group subsidiary Porteast Investment faces a 35 billion rupee ($365 million) payment on debt raised in May 2025. SP Group has sought to extend the September 30 deadline to October 31. The conglomerate plans to raise U.S. dollar-denominated debt and use the proceeds to buy rupee-based securities issued by another group entity, the sources said. "Foreign investors are currently showing interest for the group's dollar-denominated papers, encouraging the group to replicate this format again," one of the sources said. The transaction would replicate a debut $650 million debt sale executed in July through its unit Mercury Finance, which carried a 14.50% yield. In that deal, the dollar proceeds were invested in rupee bonds issued by Eqyizen Investment, which raised 213.50 billion rupees via three-year zero-coupon rupee-denominated bonds at 18.95% yield. Eqyizen Investment had a greenshoe option to raise additional funds that it did not exercise at the time. The group now plans to use that option, the sources said. The sources declined to be identified as they were not authorised to speak to the media. SP Group did not respond to a Reuters request for comment. Eqyizen's bonds are secured by SP Group's stake in Tata Sons, held through Cyrus Investments. The outlook for SP Group's debt has improved after Tata Trusts, Tata Sons' controlling shareholder, said earlier this month that SP Group had proposed selling 250 billion rupees worth of its stake. The sale would provide liquidity to manage more than 500 billion rupees of high-interest debt maturing over the next few years. ($1 = 95.9525 Indian rupees) (Reporting by Dharamraj Dhutia and Khushi Malhotra; Editing by Nivedita Bhattacharjee) ((Dharamraj.Dhutia@thomsonreuters.com;)