Small Industries Development Bank of India and Sagarmala Finance pulled ₹6,600 crore of bond sales in five days rather than pay what investors asked, as the government's one-year borrowing cost reached 6.18%, the highest since 2 April 2025.
SIDBI wanted to pay no more than 7.90% for three years and was asked about 7.97%; Sagarmala, a state-owned maritime lender, wanted less than 8% for ten years and was bid as much as 8.44%, Business Standard and the Economic Times reported. Reliance Industries and a unit of Adani Enterprises went ahead.
| Date | Issuer | ₹ crore | Term | Rate | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24 September | SIDBI | 6,000 | 3 years | bids about 7.97%; sought 7.80% to 7.90% | withdrawn |
| 28 September | Sagarmala Finance | 600 | 10 years | bids 7.69% to 8.44%; sought below 8% | withdrawn |
| 29 September | Adani Airport Holdings | 1,000 | 3 years | 8.96% | sold |
| 30 September | Reliance Industries | 12,000 | 10 years | 7.9% | sold |
Bond sales reported since 24 September. Sources: Business Standard, the Economic Times.
The Reserve Bank of India's six-member Monetary Policy Committee meets from 5 to 7 October. It has held its rate at 5.25% for four meetings after cutting it by 1.25 percentage points in 2025, and last raised it in February 2023, Business Standard noted. The government's one-year cost, set at the weekly Treasury-bill auction on 30 September, is 0.93 point above that rate and 0.57 point above its level a year ago.
For a company the price of new money matters in proportion to what it must raise; filings show the finance costs already booked. The 1,021 listed companies whose results can be compared booked ₹3.44 lakh crore of interest in the four quarters to June against ₹3.43 lakh crore a year earlier, according to Kiwaro's calculations from their filings. A year of rate cuts left the bill where it was. Operating profit grew 10%, so interest took 19.5% of it, down from 21.4%.
The interest bill rose at several large borrowers. Power companies' interest rose 14% to ₹52,878 crore and took 38% of their operating profit, up from 35%. JSW Energy's nearly doubled to ₹6,030 crore, Adani Green Energy's rose 34% and Adani Enterprises' 26%. Adani Airport Holdings, which paid 8.96% this week, is a unit of Adani Enterprises.
| Company | Interest, four quarters to June 2026, ₹ crore | Share of operating profit | A year earlier |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reliance Industries | 28,362 | 19.6% | 17.5% |
| Bharti Airtel | 22,051 | 29.8% | 39.7% |
| Vodafone Idea | 20,722 | operating loss | operating loss |
| NTPC | 13,719 | 33.7% | 35.6% |
| Oil and Natural Gas Corp. | 12,541 | 18.5% | 20.6% |
| JSW Steel | 8,597 | 35.7% | 52.8% |
| Power Grid Corp. | 8,536 | 32.5% | 31.4% |
| Indian Oil | 7,967 | 15.0% | 35.5% |
| Adani Enterprises | 7,405 | 64.2% | 50.5% |
| Tata Steel | 7,085 | 28.7% | 43.7% |
| Adani Green Energy | 6,960 | 77.4% | 68.6% |
| InterGlobe Aviation | 6,060 | 181% | 42.8% |
| JSW Energy | 6,030 | 77.8% | 55.0% |
| Tata Power | 5,384 | 54.8% | 40.7% |
Every listed company outside finance with interest above ₹5,000 crore, except Mahindra & Mahindra (₹9,720 crore), whose accounts include a lending arm.
Across all 1,078 companies with a full year of results, interest was ₹3,50,188 crore, 19.4% of operating profit. At 110 of them it took more than half; on the comparable set that count fell to 105 from 122. Below the table's line, GMR Airports' interest was 83% of operating profit and Hindustan Petroleum's twice its operating profit, against a fifth a year earlier. Fifty-four companies had no operating profit to set against ₹29,257 crore of interest: Vodafone Idea, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam with ₹2,976 crore, and smaller bills at Shree Renuka Sugars, Alok Industries and Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail.
| Industry | Companies | Interest, four quarters to June 2026, ₹ crore | Share of operating profit | A year earlier |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Electricity | 15 | 52,878 | 38.4% | 35.0% |
| Telecom | 11 | 47,818 | 52.4% | 72.0% |
| Refining, with Reliance Industries' whole group | 6 | 43,579 | 18.6% | 20.0% |
| Vehicles and transport equipment | 52 | 23,409 | 14.6% | 15.5% |
| Iron and steel | 24 | 21,803 | 26.2% | 35.5% |
| Crude oil production | 2 | 13,849 | 17.1% | 19.4% |
| Trade, mostly Adani Enterprises | 16 | 9,357 | 36.0% | 31.8% |
| Non-ferrous metals | 7 | 9,143 | 9.2% | 16.7% |
| Chemicals | 48 | 8,897 | 15.1% | 18.8% |
| Cement and other mineral products | 18 | 8,264 | 16.8% | 16.7% |
| Construction | 15 | 6,714 | 15.1% | 19.0% |
| Air transport | 1 | 6,060 | 181% | 42.8% |
| Computer services | 34 | 5,793 | 3.0% | 2.7% |
| Pharmaceuticals | 31 | 5,288 | 7.4% | 6.6% |
| Real estate | 20 | 5,183 | 20.8% | 26.1% |
Every industry with interest above ₹5,000 crore, among the 472 companies Kiwaro has classified by industry. The year-earlier column covers the companies with results for both years.
The heaviest borrowers are also the main customers of a few industries. Power plants take 54% of the coal sold to industry and steel mills 28%, and almost all iron ore goes to steel, according to India's official supply-use tables for 2023-24, which record what each industry buys from every other.
Bank loans have not followed the bond market. State Bank of India's one-year loan benchmark has stood at 8.70% since December, its published rates show. The median across banks was 8.61% in September, according to the RBI: lower than August's 8.70% and level with 8.60% a year earlier. Under RBI rules banks review those benchmarks every month against their own cost of funds.
Bond dealers point abroad and to oil. "The 10-year US Treasury yield rose beyond 5.30 per cent, while Brent crude climbed above $100 a barrel which led to selling of bonds," a dealer at a primary dealership told Business Standard on 1 October. The US Treasury's own daily rate for 10-year debt was 5.24% that day, 1.12 percentage points above a year earlier, and Brent in dollars is about 60% dearer than a year ago. Supply is the other weight, the Economic Times reported: the government plans to sell ₹7.86 lakh crore of bonds between October and March, and the RBI has sold a net ₹1 lakh crore this financial year, the most in more than a decade, Mint reported, citing Reuters. India's benchmark 10-year yield closed at 7.21% on 1 October, the highest since April 2024, according to Business Standard.
Still, cash is not scarce, and how much of the bill resets cannot be read from filings. Banks held a surplus of ₹4.85 lakh crore with the RBI on 30 September, six times the level of a year earlier, though down from the record ₹11.16 lakh crore in early September that the Economic Times reported; they lent to each other overnight at 5.22%, below the policy rate. Filings give the interest booked, not the debt behind it or its terms: finance costs include interest on leased aircraft, towers and shops, on spectrum bought in instalments and on foreign-currency debt, little of which moves with an Indian benchmark, and fixed-rate bonds change cost only when they are refinanced.
What to watch
| Date | What happens |
|---|---|
| 5–7 October | the Monetary Policy Committee meets; the decision is announced on 7 October. |
| 7 October | the next weekly Treasury-bill auction, where the 6.18% was set; they have fallen on Wednesdays in our record. The US Treasury sells $39 billion of 10-year notes the same day, Mint reported. |
| 15 October | the day of the month on which State Bank of India's benchmark has changed in our record. |
| 27–28 October | the US Federal Reserve meets. |
Data note: Interest is finance costs as filed, an expense booked rather than cash paid, on group accounts where a company files them; operating profit is total income less total expenses, plus finance costs. Banks and other lenders are not counted, and the year-earlier comparison uses the 1,021 companies with both years on the same basis. Not netted out: listed subsidiaries counted again inside listed parents (about ₹10,800 crore in the eleven pairs we can name) and the 606 smaller companies not yet classified by industry, which carry 17% of the interest and are missing from the industry table.
