REC issues ₹500 crore Tokenised Corporate Bond in India's first SEBI sandbox pilot

State-owned finance company REC Ltd on Monday (September 7) said it has successfully completed India’s first pilot issue of tokenised corporate bonds under the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) Regulatory Sandbox Framework, raising around ₹500 crore.

The issue comprised a base issue of around ₹100 crore and a green shoe option of around ₹400 crore, with bidding undertaken on the Electronic Bidding Platform (EBP) of the National Stock Exchange of India Ltd (NSE).

The issue received bids of around ₹796 crore, translating into an oversubscription of nearly 8 times. REC accepted around ₹500 crore at a 7.30% coupon rate per annum, with a tenor of 1 year and 9 months. The tokenised bond issue enabled same-day pay-in, allotment and listing of the bonds. The bonds are listed on both the NSE and BSE Limited.

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REC said the pilot was undertaken with the coordinated participation of the SEBI, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and participating Market Infrastructure Institutions (MIIs), including the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), depositories and stock exchanges.

The issuance introduced atomic Delivery-versus-Payment (DvP) settlement and shared-ledger transparency.

Through Demat 2.0, securities ownership is recorded and tracked on a permissioned distributed ledger. The company said the system eliminates settlement risks and operational friction while maintaining statutory safeguards and institutional compliance.

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First Quarter Results

Net profit for the first quarter of FY27 stood at ₹4,192.7 crore, compared with ₹4,465 crore in the year-ago period. NII fell 4% to ₹5,453 crore from ₹5,657 crore a year earlier.

The board declared a first interim dividend of ₹4.25 per equity share for FY27. The record date has been fixed as July 31, 2026, and the dividend will be paid on or before August 23, 2026.

The company also fixed August 14, 2026, as the record date for the final dividend of ₹1.55 per equity share for FY26, subject to shareholder approval at the annual general meeting. The final dividend will be paid on or before September 24, 2026.

REC said its renewable energy loan portfolio grew to ₹78,596 crore, accounting for 13.32% of its overall loan book, reflecting continued growth in financing for green energy projects. Its infrastructure and logistics portfolio expanded to ₹59,289 crore, representing more than 10% of total loan assets.

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The company said sustained efforts to improve asset quality helped reduce its Stage-3 loan asset ratio to 0.11%, which it described as near-zero levels.

REC's capital adequacy ratio (CRAR) stood at 23.06% as of June 30, 2026, well above the Reserve Bank of India's minimum regulatory requirement of 15%, indicating capacity to support future business growth.

The company said stronger fundamentals in the Indian power sector have improved the financial position of power utilities, leading to better credit profiles and lower provisioning requirements. It added that these benefits were passed on to borrowers through rationalised lending rates, resulting in a lending yield of 9.55% during the June quarter.

Shares of REC Ltd ended at ₹316.50, down by ₹3.00, or 0.94%, on the BSE.

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