Icici Bank Files Bond Prospectus

ICICI Bank today filed an umbrella prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) for raising Rs 2,500 crore via bonds in the current financial year. The bank has incorporated a greenshoe option to retain oversubscription of a like amount.

Prior to ICICI's merger with ICICI Bank, the former had raised Rs 4,400 in FY 2001-02 via bond issues. In the previous fiscal, ICICI had filed an umbrella prospectus for raising Rs 3,000 crore plus a right to retain oversubscription of a like amount.

The proposed bond issue of ICICI Bank has been rated 'LAAA' by Icra and 'CARE AAA' by CARE. The ratings indicate highest safety with regard to payment of interest and repayment of principal.

The bank plans to raise the resources via six types of instruments - tax savings bond (Section 88 bond), money multiplier bond (deep discount bond), encash bond, regular income bond, children growth bond and floating rate bond.

Amitabh Chaturvedi, head of retail channel & liabilities group, ICICI Bank, said : "Our primary focus will be to raise resources via the tax savings bonds and the deep discount bonds. We plan to raise the funds in four to five tranches by March 31, 2003".

"We will hit the market with the first issue in mid-October," he said. The bank intends utilising the funds for its day-to-day operations.