Non-convertible debenture

A corporate bond that cannot be converted into equity, issued either publicly or privately, and a major funding source for Indian non-bank lenders.

Public issues are rated and listed, and retail investors can buy them. That makes the rating and the security cover the two things a buyer should read.

Whatever yield an issue offers is the market's assessment of risk. A non-bank offering meaningfully more than its peers for the same tenor is being told something by the market, and the rating agencies typically follow later.

Compare the offered yield to a government bond of the same tenor. That gap is the credit spread.