India's Torrent Power plans around $500 million bond sale, bankers say

By Dharamraj Dhutia and Khushi Malhotra MUMBAI, Oct 15 (Reuters) — India's Torrent Power is planning to raise around $500 million through the issue of rupee-denominated bonds, its second such bond sale in the current financial year, three merchant bankers told Reuters on Thursday. The power producer is considering bond sales worth 45 billion rupees ($473.44 million) to 50 billion rupees ($526.04 million), across 3-, 5-, 7- and 10-year maturities, the three bankers familiar with the deal said. The bankers requested anonymity as they are not authorised to speak to the media, while the company did not immediately reply to a Reuters email seeking comment. "Torrent Power has already started speaking to investors and once they get some firm commitments, they could go ahead with the issue before end of this month," one of the bankers said. In June, the company had raised 38 billion rupees through a similar structure, issuing bonds maturing in 3 years, 5 years, 7 years and 10 years at coupons of 8.10%, 8.15%, 8.20% and 8.20% respectively. Torrent Power earmarked proceeds from the sale to fund its acquisition of Nabha Power, a coal-fired plant operator owned by Larsen & Toubro, for about 69