ICICI Bank gains on plan to raise funds for infrastructure and affordable housing

“Bank is currently evaluating issuance of long-term bonds in the nature of debentures for lending to long-term projects in infrastructure and affordable housing on a private placement basis,” it said in a filing to the exchanges.

The notice added that this borrowing proposal would be discussed in the meeting of the committee of executive directors next week. At the end of the December quarter, in the composition of borrowing, long-term infrastructure bonds accounted for Rs 6,850 crore.

The bank’s interest in raising money via long-term bonds had picked up after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had made changes in the regulation, announcing that such bonds (tenor of more than seven years) would be exempted from cash and statutory reserve requirements, if the proceeds were used to fund new long-term infrastructure projects and affordable housing. Also, the loans funded via this process would be exempted from the computation of adjusted net bank credit for the purpose of calculating priority sector lending requirements.

ICICI Bank is currently trading at Rs. 228.90, up by 1.35 points or 0.59% from its previous closing of Rs. 227.55 on the BSE.

The scrip opened at Rs. 228.50 and has touched a high and low of Rs. 229.90 and Rs. 226.25 respectively. So far 364383 shares were traded on the counter.

The BSE group ‘A’ stock of face value Rs. 2 has touched a 52 week high of Rs. 342.00 on 19-Mar-2015 and a 52 week low of Rs. 180.80 on 26-Feb-2016.

Last one week high and low of the scrip stood at Rs. 235.40 and Rs. 217.30 respectively. The current market cap of the company is Rs. 133099.61 crore.

The institutions and non-institutions held 87.86% and 12.13% stake in the bank, respectively.

ICICI Bank is planning to raise funds to finance infrastructure and affordable housing by issuing long-term bonds through debentures. The bank has periodically evaluates borrowing opportunities through various instruments and is currently evaluating issuance of long-term bonds in the nature of debentures for lending to long-term projects in infrastructure and affordable housing on a private placement basis.

ICICI Bank is India’s largest private sector bank with consolidated total assets of $ 132.17 billion at March 31, 2015. The Bank’s subsidiaries include India’s leading private sector insurance companies and among its largest securities brokerage firms, mutual funds and private equity firms.

ICICI Bank to raise funds for infra