State Bank, the great lender of the country raised $300 million by selling perpetual bonds overseas, falling short of target as investors sought higher interest rates. The offshore perpetual bonds- the first to be issued by an Indian bank- are aimed at shoring up SBI’s capital base and bolstering its loss-absorption capacity.

“The bond sale has just set a ‘Benchmark’ as the rate was quite competitive.The bank chose it to limit it to $300 million as it has seen higher demands for domestic bond investors”. One of the people said. The bond will be listed on Singapore stock exchange

JP Morgan Chase, HSBC,Standard Chartered Bank,National Bank of Abu Dhabi and SBI capital markets were some of the investment bankers to the issue.