BackICICI Bank plans to borrow $5 billion in 2007
ICICI Bank plans to borrow $5 billion in 2007
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By Arif Sharif/Bloomberg
Dubai: ICICI Bank Ltd, India’s biggest lender by market value, expects to borrow at least $5 billion in foreign markets this year through loans and bonds to fund its international business.
A large portion of the Mumbai-based bank’s international business in funded by “borrowings in the overseas market," said Chanda Kochhar, ICICI Bank’s deputy managing director, in an interview in Dubai on 22 March.
“Last year, we borrowed close to $5 billion," Kochhar said. “This year, the amount would only be larger because our whole business is going to be larger." The bank is considering a euro-denominated borrowing, Kochar said, though the majority of the money would still be in dollars.
ICICI Bank’s foreign revenue has surged by 60% a year as Indian companies boost trade with the rest of the world and the 25 million Indians living abroad send about $28 billion home annually. The lender also helped fund about half the foreign acquisitions by Indian companies last year.
ICICI Bank’s international presence spans 17 countries including three units in the UK, Russia and Canada and an advisory branch in Dubai’s International Financial Centre. It had assets of $67 billion at the end of December.
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