The US Embassy and the US Treasury officials joined representatives from the Centre’s Ministry of Housing and Urban Development, Vadodara city and the Securities and Exchange Board of India to celebrate the successful issuance of Vadodara’s first-ever municipal bond. Vadodara is the second Indian city to issue a municipal bond with assistance from the US Treasury Department’s Office of Technical Assistance, following Pune’s bond issuance in 2017.
The bond will provide funds for infrastructure in Vadodara. A written case study will also be published sharing lessons learned from Vadodara’s bond issuance that will benefit other Indian cities issuing their own municipal bonds in the future.
In remarks delivered to open the event, US Chargé d’Affaires Patricia Lacina commented: “As cities start to finance their own projects, municipal officials are called upon to be good financial stewards, who make the best possible use of funding to achieve the best possible results for those they represent. I am excited about the example this project sets and the possibilities it provides for the people of Vadodara.”
Vadodara’s bond, which took place in March of this year, was oversubscribed 10 times and received Rs 1007 crore in bids from 33 bidders) and was priced at a low yield of just 7.15 percent.
Earlier in 2017, Pune became the first Indian local body to issue municipal bonds and had raised Rs 200 crores for its smart city project.The issue was oversubscribed six times and had received subscriptions worth Rs 1200 crore.