Speaking to newspersons here today, a jubilant SBI chairman, M S Verma, said more than 74,000 applications were received by the bank from 27 countries as the RIBs closed in the US on Tuesday morning. "As the last report came in, the collection is to the tune of $4.16 billion.... The final figure could be marginally more. It is a record difficult to beat,'' the chairman announced.

More than $ 2 billion was raised from Middle East and South-east Asia alone, making SBI's RIBs as the biggest-ever debt offering from the country and in the world in the fiscal 1998. The bond issue was announced by Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha in his budget speech as part of a strategy to tackle the sanctions imposed by many countries after the nuclear explosion.

``The RIB has exploded the myth that the US is the biggest market for Indian debt issues. The US need not always be the biggest contributor,'' Verma said. While the US and Europe together accounted for about 30 per cent of the total RIB collections, the Middle East -- mainly UAE -- has contributed about 50 per cent and South East Asia -- Hong Kong has contributed the balance.

The entire amount was mobilised within a short period of 16 working days in India and only 14 days in US and the Europe, Verma said. Aggressive marketing strategy using major technological inputs also added to the RIB success. ``About 3 lakh application forms have been downloaded from our website and they have reached us,'' he said about the use of internet in marketing the bonds abroad.

Verma said the main objective behind the RIBs was to change the international perception about India. ``The huge collections have showed the NRI's faith in Indian economic fundamentals,'' the SBI chairman said.

Verma said that the NRIs were also unhappy over the US economic sanctions on India and decided to help the country in its hour of need. ``The NRIs have told us during the roadshows about their displeasure with the US pressure tactics... as they love their country, during a crisis time, they stood by us,'' Verma said.

On the end-use of funds, Verma said: ``We would be investing in the power, telecom and roads projects. During our road shows, the NRIs were only asking questions on how the proceeds of the bonds would be used,'' Verma said. ``As we had a clear focus on building infrastructure, and NRIs overwhelmingly supported the move as they realise the importance of efficient infrastructure in the country,'' he said.

``We would be able to build infrastructure to the order of Rs 12 to 13 billion from the RIB proceeds,'' Verma said. ``Besides, these funds would help us to augment the size of our international operations. We expect to add $ 1 billion to our international operations. We have to tell the world that we are focused on infrastructure development and it is for us to demonstrate that there is still a lot of steam in India's economic engine," Verma said.

SBI has plans to offer a fixed lending rate in foreign currency and rupee loans to infrastructure projects. There are about 50 large projects which are ready to get into the construction phase to which banks and financial institutions have sanctioned about Rs 30,000 crore. The demand from infrastructure projects in the next two years alone is expected to be in the region of Rs 60,000 crore.

Asked whether he expected any credit demand from the core sector given the current state of the economy, Verma said that infrastructure projects which are currently borrowing at rates ranging from 15-16 per cent, will be at an advantage, if they borrow from the State bank given its low cost of funds. "Even if we undercut our competitors by 300-400 basis points, we will still have a comfortable spread, " said Verma.

The chairman said the RIB proceeds would help the bank to increase its asset base in the current fiscal. In four year time we would be adding about Rs 12,000 crore to 15,000 crore to the footings of our balance sheets,'' he said.

The multi-currency issue -- denominated in dollar, pound sterling and Deutsche Mark -- has raised funds through a syndicate of 46 banks apart from the State Bank and its subsidiaries. In 1997 calendar year only two issues successfully mobilised over $4 billion from the global market.

Defending the pricing of the issue, SBI chairman said at 7.75 per cent, the five-year dollar denominated instrument is "most adequately priced". The debt issues of similar maturities floated by Brazil, Argentina, Mexico and Poland were priced between 8 and 13 per cent.