PNB Housing Finance turns to ECB route to raise fresh funds

PNB Housing Finance said Wednesday it has raised USD 265 million (Rs 1,853 crore) through external commercial borrowing (ECB) route last week. The company raised the funds on December 28, 2018, and these will be utilised for normal on-lending operations, the bank said in a release. The housing finance company further said that it raised a total USD 465 million (Rs 3,324 crore) through ECB during the third quarter of 2018-19 of five-year tenure. "The facility has come at a landed cost which is much below the domestic pricing for similar tenor," PNB Housing Finance Managing Director & CEO Sanjaya Gupta said.

Total borrowing through various means remained at Rs 20,000 crore in spite of market headwinds in the third quarter of the current fiscal, PNB Housing further said. This includes both long-term and short-term facilities through deposits, ECBs, National Housing Bank (NHB) refinance securitisation (direct assignment route), bank borrowings and commercial papers (CPs).

The company said that apart from CPs, all the other fresh borrowings in the third quarter are of long-term in nature, thereby helping the company in further strengthening the asset liability management (ALM) profile and business growth. Factoring these, the company as on December 31, 2018, had liquidity of about Rs 12,000 crore which includes cash and liquid investments of nearly Rs 6,000 crore and Rs 6,000 crore of sanctioned undrawn-lines. In addition to these, there is sufficient pipeline of proposals, including additional ECBs, at an advanced stage of sanction, Gupta said.