State Bank of India on Wednesday said its board has given nod to raise Rs 200 billion for financing affordable housing and infrastructure projects through long-term bonds. "The executive committee of the Central Board in its meeting held today has inter alia approved, the proposal for issuance of long-term bonds of Rs 200 bill the on for financing of infrastructure and affordable housing in domestic and overseas market in FY 2017-18 and FY 2018-19," the country's largest bank said in a BSE filing. The bank did not specify whether the borrowing would be in rupee denomination or foreign currency. Earlier this month, SBI had announced plans to raise up to $2 billion by issuing bonds in the US dollar or other convertible currency to fund overseas expansion. It had said that the fund-raising would take place through a public offer and/or private placement of senior unsecured notes in US dollar or any other convertible currency during 2017-18 and 2018-19. Shares of State Bank of India (SBI) closed 3.44 per cent higher at Rs 306.35 apiece on BSE today. Although the real estate sector is facing multi-year slowdown, the affordable housing segment has gained momentum after the government provided infrastructure to it in the last year's budget. The government is also providing interest subsidy to buyers on the low cost homes under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana. Recently, HDFC Capital Advisors, an arm of mortgage leader HDFC, closed its second affordable housing fund, creating a USD 1-billion corpus.
FILE PHOTO: State Bank of India building