Sebi Okays Icicis Rs 400-Crore Issue

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has cleared the offer document by Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation of India Ltd (ICICI) for a public issue of bonds to raise Rs 400 crore.

Sebi has given permission to ICICI for issuing three kinds of bonds; viz. money multiplier bond, regular income bond and tax saving bond. ICICI has appointed J M Financial as the lead manager to the issue. ICICI officials when contacted said that they have not finalised the pricing or the date of issue of these bonds.

Subsequent to the RBIs decision to hike the Bank Rate and the CRR there has been some uncertainty on the interest rate front. While short term rates have declined, there is uncertainty on the long term rates. The date and pricing of the retail bond issue would be finalised based on the prevailing situation in the market, said the ICICI official.

 

ICICI officials pointed out that the decision to seek approval from Sebi for a Rs 400-crore issue was in addition to the request for an umbrella permission for issuing Rs 3,000 crore of bonds. The umbrella permission would have entailed that ICICI would not be required to approach Sebi for permission every time it wanted to approach the market. Even if Sebi gives its approval, ICICI would still need to clear its issue with the Registrar of Companies.

We are in constant dialogue with Sebi on the issue of umbrella approval, said the official. While Sebi officials are inclined towards giving ICICI the necessary approvals it is expected that it would some time before it is actually granted. Since there was some uncertainty on when the approval would be granted, ICICI decided to file the offer document for the Rs 400-crore bond issue in the conventional manner, said the official.