India’s Larsen & Toubro is planning to raise ₹500 crore ($52.92 million) through a sale of three-year tokenised bonds, which would be the first such issuance from a private-sector company, two merchant bankers said on Tuesday.
The construction conglomerate will pay an annual coupon of 7.40% and has invited bids from investors on Wednesday, they said.
The company did not reply to a Reuters email seeking comment, outside regular business hours.
Tokenised bonds use blockchain technology
Tokenised bonds are securities whose ownership, issuance, trading and settlement are recorded digitally on a blockchain or distributed ledger. The Reserve Bank of India’s digital currency will be used to buy the bonds.
The notes are settled on the same day, and only investors with active central bank digital currency wallets can place bids.
REC became first Indian issuer on Monday
On Monday, state-run REC became the first company from India to issue tokenised bonds, when it raised 5 billion rupees through 20-month bonds at a coupon of 7.30%.