UK arm not into subprime credit: ICICI

The country’s largest private lender, ICICI Bank, On Monday said that 98 per cent of its UK arm’s non-India investment book is rated investment grade and above. The bank’s share on Monday  fell to a two-year low on the domestic bourses even while other front-line lenders including HDFC Bank and the State Bank of India were trading over 30 per cent above their yearly lows.

ICICI Bank said that its UK subsidiary, which was in the news a few days ago over concerns about its investments in the instruments of the bankrupt Lehman Brothers, has no exposure to the US subprime credit. The subsidiary’s non-India investment book has been estimated at $3.5 billion, and about 89 per cent of those investments are rated A- and above by Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s and Fitch.

“Only about 18 per cent of ICICI Bank UK PLC’s non-India investment book has exposure to the US. The bank has a total balance sheet size of $8.5 billion and has zero non-performing loans on the balance portfolio of $3.9 biilion,” an official statement by ICICI Bank said.

A panic-selling in the counter saw the ICICI scrip drop 12.11 per cent to close at Rs 493.90 on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). The shares touched an intra-day low of Rs 483 and have lost nearly 60 per cent of its value over the past eight months.

According to market analysts, apart from confusion over the bank’s exposure to the US and European markets, high holding of foreign funds was taking a toll on the share price.

“Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) hold nearly 70 per cent stake in the bank and the stock is not immune to selling, as FIIs have sold nearly $8 billion worth of equity this year. Though there have been rumours about domestic banks, ICICI seems to be strong fundamentally,” said Deven Choksey, managing director, K R Choksey Shares and Securities.

Foreign shareholders of ICICI Bank include Singapore state investor Temasek, Government of Singapore Investment Corp (GIC), Deutsche Bank Trust Company Americas and Merrill Lynch Capital Markets Espana SASV among others.

On September 2, Morgan Stanley had listed ICICI Bank as the Asian bank most exposed to a downturn in markets.