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| ICICI Bank for doubling returns; to be in top-5 listed cos |
| Press Trust of India / New Delhi Aug 27, 2009, 14:08 IST |
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Unsatiated by trebling of its share price to Rs 750 since March, ICICI Bank has embarked on an ambitious plan to double return for investors in three years and be counted among the country's top five valuable entities, CEO and Managing Director Chanda Kochhar has said.
"The biggest thing I want to do for the investors is to double our return on equity in three years time," she said, but with a caveat that it was not a forward looking statement but a target she had set for herself and her team after taking over from K V Kamath as ICICI Bank chief in May.
For achieving this target, she said, she has identified six areas that need improvement, including taking the Bank's profitability to industry average level and expand the branch network by over a third without spending a single rupee on it.
"Doubling (the return) in three years' time is quite a stretched target. That means that every year you have to grow and improve the ROE substantially. (But) I've done a very clear thinking on how we are going to achieve that," she said.
After touching a 52-week low of Rs 252.75 on March 6, ICICI Bank stock have rebounded sharply and are currently trading at near Rs 750. However, it is still just about half the all-time high level of Rs 1,465 scaled in January 2008.
"My intention would be to reach sooner... As soon as I can," Kochhar said on when the Bank would reach among the top- five valuable entities and added that "from Rs 250 we moved to Rs 750 and I feel happy about it. But, it is still not the correct value."
To double the return for investors in three years, the bank would focus on "each and every item of the balance sheet and the Profit & Loss Account" in the first year to see how it could be improved, Kochhar explained, adding that the second and the third years would be the time for growth.
Asked about the need for change to achieve this growth target, she said the bank was looking to "tweak out the organisation to the current environment."
"Because the environment is very different, we need to do the things differently," she said.
Listing out the six focus areas before the bank, she said the bank would cut down on wholesale deposits and focus on current and savings accounts; lower exposure to unsecured retail loans; improve net interest margins to bring it closer to industry average; raise fee income by focusing more on trade finance; cut operating costs and control credit losses.
Stating that these targets had not been imposed by the board, but by herself, Kochhar said that, thirdly, the bank was looking to improve its net interest margin and take it closer to the industry levels.
"We are at 2.4 per cent, a good average for the industry is 3 per cent," she added.
Explaining the six-pronged strategy, Kochhar said, the bank clearly wants to change the structure of the balance sheet in such a way that the proportion of current and savings account (CASA) deposits in the total deposit base increases.
Noting that the growth in the bank's CASA has been "very good in absolute terms" in the past, Kochhar admitted that the ratio has been lower than most of the banks, as it was also borrowing on wholesale funds.
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