RPT-India cbank wants bond issues not below 90 days

(Repeats story issued late on Tuesday)

MUMBAI, Nov 3 (Reuters) - India's central bank said on Tuesday borrowers cannot issue non-convertible debentures (NCDs) for less than 90 days.

In its draft guidelines for NCDs, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said that companies with a tangible net worth of not less than 40 million rupees could issue papers with maturity of less than one year.

Also, borrowers should have a sanctioned working capital limit from banks and financial institutions and its loan account should be a standard asset.

The RBI said the entities cannot attach a call or put option to bonds within 90 days from the date of issue.

The central bank has posted the draft on its website www.rbi.org.in and invited feedback from market participants by Nov. 20 for finalising the guidelines.

Bonds may be issued to and held by banks, primary dealers, corporates, non-resident Indians, individuals and foreign institutional investors.

Bonds with maturity below one year are right now not regulated by the government or capital market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).

Since non-convertible debentures are money market instruments, they should be regulated by the RBI, the central bank said.

Bonds may be issued in the denomination of 5,00,000 rupees or multiples thereof, the central bank said.

Dealers said the finalisation of the draft guidelines would dry out the ultra short bond market through which companies and non-banking finance companies funded initial public offers (IPOs).

Typically, during IPO issuances, brokers and financial companies raise short-term money at very high rates of interest by issuing bonds of around seven to 10-day maturity, mainly to mutual funds.

"The daily put-call (DPC) option market will vanish now. This norm will plug the arbitrage that corporates used to make by borrowing Mibor-linked DPC bonds at lower rates and repaying their costly loans," said a bond dealer.

However, implementation of these draft guidelines would drive borrowers towards the commercial paper, which have a maturity from 14 days to a year, dealers said.

The RBI said such bonds would need to be rated by at least one credit rating agency. (Reporting by Suvashree Dey Choudhury; Editing by Prem Udayabhanu)