ICICI reworks $5-billion medium-term note plan

ICICI Bank, the country’s largest private sector lender, has dropped its plan to raise funds overseas through upper and lower Tier-II bonds under its $5-billion medium-term note (MTN) programme. The bank will instead focus on instruments like senior unsecured notes and hybrid Tier-I notes.

The bank will use the proceeds for international operations and general corporate purposes. “This is a periodic update of the MTN programme and an enabling filing and not for any immediate fund raising. Our earlier filing included upper and lower Tier-II bonds, but they are no longer a part of the programme and there are no outstanding upper and lower Tier-II bonds under the programme,” said an ICICI Bank spokesperson.

Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services has affirmed ‘BBB-’ rating on the lender’s senior unsecured notes and ‘BB’ rating on its hybrid Tier-I notes. The agency has withdrawn the indicative rating issued to the bank’s Tier-II bonds. As of now, the outstanding amount under the MTN programme is around $1.7 billion. The bank’s capital adequacy ratio was 17.4 per cent at the end of June 2009.

The spokesperson said the fund raising would depend on the bank’s requirements and market conditions.