Icici Prunes Subsidiaries To 24 From 31

Term-lending institution ICICI Ltd has cut down its subsidiaries from 31 to 24 and is pruning it further to 21.

According to ICICI executive director Kalpana Morparia, "ICICI Infotech US has merged four of its subsidiaries into itself. We have also desubsidarised three of the real estate firms. Of the balance three subsidiaries, ICICI Econet will be merged into ICICI Ventures."

The cutting down of subsidiaries was one of the preconditions laid down by the Reserve Bank of India for ICICI's foray into the non-life insurance business along with the lowering of NPAs.

The ICICI scrip moved up by 2.74 per cent to Rs 59.95 on the Bombay Stock Exchange. In the last few days, the stock has been moving southwards, going below its 52-week low of Rs 58.10 on July 25.

 

Refuting market rumours Morparia said, " There have been no raids by the Central Bureau of Investigation or by another agency on ICICI. We also have not made equity investments in any of the K-10 scrips. We are only a term-lending institution and not an investment company. The investments in equity have been more due to conversion of debentures or due to restructuring of companies."

She said, "ICICI has not given any loans to the KP group. ICICI had given a project loan to Zee and a working capital loan to HFCL. Before giving any working capital loans due diligence is done whether the company needs the funds."

Rating agency Crisil reaffirmed the AAA rating given to the institution. Both Icra and CARE have also have also given the company a AAA rating.

On the rumours of price ramp up, Morparia said "The shares in the company are widely dispersed-- 47 to 49 per cent is with foreign institutional investors, around 30 per cent is with LIC, GIC and UTI and of the remaining 10 per cent is with retail. The rating agencies also do a through investigation before giving us the ratings."