Icici Bank Ups Gilts Pie In Q3

In the run-up to the reverse merger of parent ICICI, ICICI Bank has increased its investment in government securities by 74.93 per cent in the third quarter.

ICICI Bank's investment in statutory liquidity ratio SLR portfolio increased to Rs 12,732 crore as on December 31, 2001, from Rs 7,278 crore on September 30, 2001.

Since the merged entity with an asset base of around Rs 1 lakh needs to adhere to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) stipulated 25 per cent SLR, it will need to double its exposure to government securities in the last quarter of the current fiscal.

The deposit base of the bank has increased by more than 30 per cent to Rs 22,920 crore as on December 31, 2001, from Rs 17,515 crore as on September 30, 2001.

The bank will have to raise its deposit base by another Rs 12,595 crore as it will be required to buy government bonds to fulfil the SLR norms.

Retail deposits of the bank constituted 60 per cent of total deposits as on December 31, 2001. Savings bank deposits increased to Rs 2,332 crore from Rs 1,007 crore the previous year.

The bank has added 1.5 million new accounts in the first nine months of fiscal 2002. Meanwhile, ICICI Bank has called an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) of shareholders to consider the merger scheme on January 25. ICICI's EGM is on January 30.

ICICI Bank has said that the appointed date for the merger will be March 30 or the date from which RBI's approval becomes effective, whichever is earlier.