Axis Bank tops Re-bond league table for 16th consecutive year in 2022

Axis Bank has trumped every competitor for the 16th consecutive year in 2022 as a rupee domestic bond issue arranger, cornering 19.20 per cent market share or Rs 92,904.5 crore across 127 issuances.

Significantly, the top three spots are retained by private sector lenders with the second position maintained by ICICI Bank with a market share of 17.67 per cent or Rs 85,486 crore and HDFC Bank third with 17.29 per cent or Rs 83,667 crore of the total share, according to the Bloomberg league table for 2022.

While Axis Bank's market share marginally declined in 2022 from 19.37 per cent in 2021, it increased from Rs 80,798 crore in 2021 in value terms. Those of ICICI Bank has jumped from 14.51 per cent in 2021 or arranging Rs 60,527 crore of debt issuances, HDFC Bank's too increased from 14.04 per cent or Rs 58,542 crore, as the overall issuances remained tepid.

As of September 2022, the outstanding corporate bonds stood at Rs 39,12,853 crore up from Rs 36,53,408 crore in September 2021, said Neeraj Gambhir, the group executive and head of treasuries at Axis Bank, quoting NSDL data.

"We've been the market leader for the 16th consecutive year in arranging domestic corporate bond issuances in 2022. We've acted as arranger for 127 bond issuances worth Rs 92,904.5 crore in the year, giving us a market share of 19.2 per cent," Gambhir told PTI on Monday.

He attributed this record success to the consistent efforts put in by the teams and exhibits our agility to adapt to the changing times and reflects the confidence of our clients in our capabilities. Our synergised efforts through the 'One Axis' approach have helped us establish the leadership position across the capital markets.

He said the challenging interest rate environment has seen bond issuance seeing lower activity till the third quarter when the volume picked up, eventually ending at a marginally higher volume than 2021.

Total issuances in the year rose to Rs 4,83,770 crore, from Rs 4,17,055 crore in 2021, he added.

Axis Bank, which is the third largest private sector lender, offers the entire spectrum of bond issuance services to its customer segments covering large and mid-corporates, SME, agriculture and retail businesses.

According to an Icra Ratings report last week, banks continue to lead the bond market raising a record Rs 91,500 crore in the first nine months of FY23 as liquidity conditions continuing to remain tight and the year may close with around Rs 1.4 lakh crore of fresh supplies, up from up from Rs 0.7 lakh crore in whole of FY22.