The State Bank of India (SBI) on November 22 dual-listed $650 million green bonds simultaneously on the India International Exchange (India INX) and Luxembourg Stock Exchange (LuxSE). Commemorating the occasion of World Investor Week, the dual listing matched this year’s theme of ‘Sustainable Finance,' as indicated by the regulatory body, International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA)
The Bombay Stock Exchange’s (BSE) international arm, India INX, had signed an MoU with the Luxembourg Stock Exchange on November 19, 2020, for cooperation in the financial services sector. This dual listing of green bonds is the first step towards this collaboration.
V. Balasubramaniam, MD and CEO, India INX, said, “With this dual listing we have taken the first step towards our association with LuxSE. 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 $33-billion listing.”
Manoj Kumar, Executive Director, IFSCA, said, “Today’s dual listing of SBI bonds is an important step for IFSCA in demonstrating regulatory convergence with the leading international markets of Luxembourg, which has the largest green bond listings in the world.”
Ashwini Kumar Tewari, Managing Director of SBI, said, “The bank has adopted sustainability as one of its core values. A ‘Sustainability and Business Responsibility Policy’ for the bank has already been put in place, SBI was the first public sector bank in India to publish its Sustainability Report as per Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) framework.”
In 2019, India INX had unveiled GSM Green, a platform for exclusively fundraising and trading in green, social and sustainable bonds.
India INX
India INX, BSE’s international arm, started its trading activities on January 16, 2017. The exchange provides an electronic platform to facilitate trading, clearing and settlement across 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 $11.67 billion, a growth of more than 275 percent over corresponding quarter of September 2020, with around 84 percent market share among the exchanges at IFSC.
The exchange provides competitive advantage in terms of the tax structure, that include waiver of several taxes like securities transaction tax, commodities transaction tax, dividend distribution tax, capital gains tax, GST, among others.
(Edited by : Shoma Bhattacharjee)
