ICICI Bank shares hit record high after clarification on fund raise

ICICI Bank share price today hit a new life-time high of ₹900.80 apiece on NSE in early morning deals. ICICI Bank share price opened upside on Thursday morning session and went on to climb to its new record high. Incidentally, this has happened one day after the private lender clarified on news of ₹10,000 core fund raise through infra bonds in one or more tranches. In its reply to the exchanges, ICICI Bank Limited made it clear that it has the requisite annual board approvals which permits the issuance of bonds or securities. It also said that the information in this regard has been shared with the exchanges in its previous exchange filing.

While clarifying on ₹10,000 crore fund raise through infra bonds, ICICI Bank told Indian stock market exchanges, "ICICI Bank issues bonds as a part of its normal business operations as a bank, to fund its lending activity. The Bank has the requisite annual board approvals which permits the issuance of bonds/ securities during the period of one year from the date of approval and had duly reported the same to the exchanges on the date of the meeting (copy attached for reference). The Bank may undertake issuances within the approved limit at any time based on market conditions. In this connection, the Bank also obtains credit ratings which are disclosed by the agencies as per normal procedure prescribed. Any issuance of bonds by the Bank is done via the Electronic Bidding Platform (EBP) provided by the exchanges whereby 2 days prior intimation is provided to investors for bidding in the bonds. Subsequently, on the date of allotment, an intimation to the exchanges is sent with the details of the issuance."

In its exchange communication dated 23rd April 2022, ICICI Bank had informed about the fund raise programme citing, "Fund raising by way of issuances of debt securities including by way of non-convertible debentures in domestic markets up to an overall limit of ~ 250.00 billion, by way of private placement and issuances of bonds/notes/offshore certificate of deposits in overseas markets up to USD 1.50 billion in single/multiple tranches for a period of one year, from the date of passing of resolution by the Board."

On September 5, 2022, Indian exchanges had sought clarification from ICICI Bank Ltd with reference to the media report that said private lender will raise ₹10,000 crore via infra bonds in one or more tranches.