HUDCO plans first overseas debt issue in FY26 to reduce borrowing costs

Mumbai: State-owned Housing and Urban Development Corp (Hudco) is eyeing its maiden overseas debt issue in FY26 through a Japanese yen-denominated Samurai bond sale to help diversify borrowing sources and reduce costs. “Because we are testing the waters, we are looking to raise anywhere between $100 million and $150 million through yen-denominated bonds to start with in this financial year,” MD Sanjay Kulshrestha told ET.

Separately, the company is also looking to raise $500 (dollar equivalent yen) through external commercial borrowings in the September quarter. Both ECB and foreign-currency bonds are part of HUDCO’s planned overseas borrowing of $2 billion in the current financial year.

Daljeet Singh Khatri, director, finance, said that following the announcement of the company’s FY25 results on Wednesday, it will start the documentation work for the bond issue. “It may happen in the third quarter or end of the second quarter. We have a panel of bankers, including all reputed Japanese bankers like SMBC, MUFG, and Mizuho,” Khatri said.The objective of overseas borrowings is to bring down the cost of funds. Kulshrestha said that the company is aiming to cut down the weighted average cost of borrowing to 6.5-6.5% by the end of this fiscal from 6.75% currently.”If there is arbitrage of 50 bps, then only it is wise to go for overseas borrowing,” he said, adding that the Reserve Bank of India’s 50 basis point reduction in policy rates and cheaper overseas borrowing will help the company.

HUDCO plans to borrow ₹65,000 crore through a mix of loans from domestic and overseas markets. This compares with ₹55,000 crore it borrowed last fiscal.