"The issue was subscribed to by banks, mutual funds and corporates," a source said. A release issued by Reliance said that the debt issue was placed with over 20 investors. "It was the tightest priced issue of one-year bonds from a corporate issuer this year," the release from Reliance Industries said. The issue is in continuation of RIL's strategy to raise financing in a cost-effective manner through use of innovative intruments.Earlier in June, the companyprivately placed Rs 50 crore worth of short-term non-convertible debentures (NCDs) linked to the Reuter Mumbai interbank overnight rate (RMIOR). The nine-month instrument carried a bullet repayment on March 15, 1999.

Subsequently, on June 22, the company concluded another deal raising Rs 100 crore at 225 basis points above Reuter MIBR. However, this instrument which has a one year maturity had a lower cap of 9.25 per cent and a upper cap of 15.25 per cent. Both these instruments were floating rate issues. The present one is the first fixed rate issue from Reliance this year. The RIL bonds have been assigned a rating of P1+ by Crisil, the highest rating available for short-term debt.