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• Power Finance Corporation is expecting to raise about Rs 3,000 crore via issue of domestic corporate bonds. The government-owned non-banking finance company (NBFC) has opened its bond issue today and will be closing it by tomorrow."We aim to raise a minimum of Rs 150 crore through this issue. However, we have kept a greenshoe option and should be able to garner up to Rs 3,000 crore," said Satnam Singh, chairman and managing director, PFC. Response of the issue will decide if we will come out with more bond issuances this fiscal, he added.

• Bonds with a tenor of 5 and 10 years will be issued with put and call options. Investors can chose from three available to them--5 year bonds with a put and call option after 18 months and coupon of 9.61%, 5 year 18 days bonds with a put and call option of 3 years and coupon of 9.66% and 10 year bonds with a coupon of 9.48%.The firm has raised around Rs 32,000 crore in financial year 2011-12 aims to raise around Rs 40,000 crore next year for financing various power projects across the country. PFC is one of the biggest fund raisers in the country and next year it expected to get permission to issue tax-free bonds.

• "Although, the budget has broadly said that power sector will be given an issuance limit of Rs 10,000 crore for tax-free bonds, we are hopeful that we will also get a substantial share of this limit," Singh said. The corporate bond yields are expected to remain high in the coming months, and tax-free bonds may be able to give some cost benefit to the issuers.

• PFC has also been planning its $1 billion medium term note issue for sometime now. "We had been waiting for the budget to be announced and the uncertainty to be over. Now that the budget is out, we have revived out talks with merchant bankers," Singh said. However, with limited days left in this fiscal, the MTN issue may spill over to the next year, he added.

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