SBI dual lists USD 650 Million green bonds on India INX and Luxembourg Stock Exchange
Commemorating the occasion of World Investor Week, SBI has today dual listed USD 650 Million green bonds simultaneously on India International Exchange (India INX) and Luxembourg Stock Exchange. This dual listing is in line with this year’s topic of World Investor Week, ‘Sustainable Finance’, as indicated by regulatory body International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA).
On November 19, 2020, BSE’s international arm, India INX, had announced its memorandum of understanding with Luxembourg Stock Exchange for cooperation in financial services industry, maintenance of orderly markets in securities respective country, ESG (environmental, social and governance) and green finance in the local market. This dual listing of green bonds is the first step towards this collaborated effort.
Commenting on event and the subsequent listing, Shri V. Balasubramaniam, MD and CEO, India INX said, “With this dual listing we have taken the first step towards our association with Luxembourg Stock Exchange (LuxSE) with a mutual goal of deeply benefiting the investors and issuers at large. On this special occasion of World Investor Week, we are focusing on the theme of Sustainable Finance and this listing of Green Bonds by SBI is very important move towards that goal. We will work towards establishing a green corridor with Luxembourg to enable Indian Issuers to automatically qualify for dual listing with LuxSE to get investors from Europe and the globe. India INX has now emerged as the leading Bond Listing venue with over USD 33 billion dollars listing.”
Shri Manoj Kumar, Executive Director, IFSCA said “Today’s dual listing of SBI bonds is an important step for IFSC in demonstrating regulatory convergence with the leading international markets of Luxembourg, which has the largest green bond listings in the world. This will pave way for Indian and European issuers to explore IFSC as a hub for issuance of green and sustainable bonds. On the occasion of World Investor week, themed around sustainable finance, the dual listing will also enhance international investors’ confidence in sustainable products listed at IFSC.”
In 2019, India INX had unveiled GSM Green, a platform for fund raising and trading in green, social and sustainable bonds exclusively. The platform of India INX is established as per ICMA’s Green Bond Principles and Climate Bonds Initiative which provides an ideal platform for global investors to invest. The GSM platform has emerged the destination of choice for listing overseas issuances. Till date, Global Securities Market has established USD 58+ billion in MTN programmes and more than USD 33+ billion of bonds issued till date of which USD 4.3 Billion of issuances are listed on the GSM Green platform.
About India INX
India INX, BSE’s international arm, commenced its trading activities on January 16, 2017 and is India’s first International Exchange set up at GIFT IFSC. It is one of the world’s most advanced technology platforms with a response time of 4 micro seconds and allows trading for 22 hours a day, in a range of financial market products such as index and single stock derivatives, commodity derivatives, currency derivatives and debt securities, to allow international investors to trade from anywhere across the globe. The Exchange, provides a state of the art electronic platform to facilitate trading, clearing and settlement of the widest range of global benchmark products across all major asset classes, including securities, equity derivatives, precious metals, base metals, energy and bonds. The average daily turnover at the exchange for the quarter ended September 2021 is USD 11.67 Bn. a growth of more than 275% over corresponding quarter of September 2020, with around 84 % market share among the exchanges at IFSC. India INX all time high turnover is USD 30.3 Bn. on March 10, 2021. The Exchange also has tier-III equivalent data centre colocation facility for its Members. . India INX introduced the Global Securities Market (GSM) platform, which is a pioneering concept in India, offering issuers an efficient and transparent method to raise capital. The platform offers a debt listing framework at par with other global listing venues such as London, Luxembourg, Singapore etc. The Exchange provides competitive advantage in terms of tax structure and supportive regulatory framework that is comparable with any other global financial centre. These include waiver of several taxes like securities transaction tax, commodities transaction tax, dividend distribution tax, capital gains tax, GST etc. Further, as an entity set up at IFSC, additional tax waivers are applicable viz. graded income tax holiday for ten years out of fifteen years, one-time subsidy on IT capex spend, no stamp duty etc.