No global M&A plans, better opportunities in India: ICICI

ICICI Bank has said that only Japanese banks have the necessary financial muscle to acquire banks in the US and Europe, in current scenario and it would look only at Indian opportunities for now.

"Given global challenges, this should not be appropriate time to look at global opportunities," ICICI Bank Managing Director and CEO K V Kamath said, when asked if the bank with its financial leveraging capability would consider acquiring American and European banks at their beaten-down valuations.

"I think coming from India and given opportunities in India, at this point of time, India becomes a better place to be," Kamath told PTI last week.

 

On opportunities like Nomura buying fixed income assets of Lehman Brothers for a meagre two dollars, Kamath said: "At this point of time, it is basically Japanese Banks, which are in position to look at (these opportunities). I don't think British Banks are in position to look at it either and very few American banks are looking at.

"Suddenly, it has become a very limited set of players, who have large capital and large liquidity flows... I think time is not right for the developing countries," he said.

Debunking reports quoting Morgan Stanley that ICICI Bank is among the Asian banks most leveraged to a bull market and thus most exposed to a downturn, Kamath said that the capital adequacy ratio of 13.4 per cent means that the "bank is not over-leveraged at all. In fact, we are reasonably leveraged."