ICICI to raise Rs 20,000 cr from equities; earns 22 pc profit

Mumbai, Apr 28 (UNI) ICICI Bank today sought to expand its additional equity capital to the tune of Rs 20,000 cr (USD 5 billion) from public issues in India and through the issuance of American Depositary Shares (ADSs) in US.

The capital accumulated through the process will be pumped in to enhance the capital ''as a proactive move to leverage business opportunities, maintain appropriate regulatory capitalisation levels and to move towards global benchmarks of scale,'' said Managing Director K V Kamath, in a statement here.

The Bank achieved a 22 per cent growth in profit after tax (PAT) at Rs 3,110 cr (USD 715 million) escalating from past year's margin of Rs 2,540 cr (USD 584 million) for the full year.

While PAT for the quarter year ended March 31, stood at Rs 825 cr as against Rs 790 cr in the same quarter of previous year.

The Bank's deposits have also grown a whopping 40 per cent to Rs 2,30,510 cr, of which the savings deposits jumped up to Rs 28,839 cr from Rs 20,938 cr in past year.

The merger with Sangli Bank, which was approved by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in recent times, has shot up the total number of branches from the earlier 755 to 950 in total, said ICICI Bank Joint Managing Director Kalpana Morparia.

''Pursuant to the recent Reserve Bank regulations, the capital adequacy as on March 31 has increased to 11.7 per cent,'' she said.

On the other side, the net non-performing assets (NPAs) are around 0.98 per cent while the ratio is a mere 0.71 percent in the home loan portfolio, she said.

The Board, which met today, also decided to appoint Madhabi Puri-Buch as its Executive Director.

ICICI Bank now holds representation in 17 countries and the total assets of the ICICI's internatioanl branches have almost doubled to Rs 52,500 cr (USD 12.1 billion) for the full year from previous year's Rs 27,500 cr (USD 6.3 billion), the statement added.

UNI