Power Finance Corp to sell bonds worth $1.4 billion to individual investors

India’s biggest lender to the power sector plans to sell bonds to individual investors as it tries to attract savers dissatisfied with deposit rates at a 16-year low.

Power Finance Corp. has filed a draft prospectus for a 100-billion-rupee offering ($1.4 billion), and plans to raise the entire sum this quarter, according to Parminder Chopra, director (finance).

“We want to explore an alternative source of funds,” Chopra said in a telephone interview. “Fixed deposit rates are quite low, so there could be interest from the public to get a bit better rate.”

Unprecedented monetary stimulus to help cushion the economy from damage wrought by the Covid-19 crisis has dragged down rates that households get on bank savings, adding to challenges in a nation where inflation is persistently high.