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"Given global challenges, this should not be appropriate time to look at global opportunities," ICICI Bank Managing Director and CEO K V Kamath said when asked if the bank with its financial leveraging capability would consider acquiring American and European banks at their beaten-down valuations.
"I think coming from India and given opportunities in India, at this point of time, India becomes a better place to be," Kamath said.
On opportunities like Nomura buying fixed income assets of Lehman Brothers for a meager two dollars, Kamath said, "At this point of time, it is basically Japanese Banks which are in position to look at (these opportunities). I don't think British Banks are in position to look at it either and very few American banks are looking at.
"Suddenly it has become a very limited set of players who have large capital and large liquidity flows... I think time is not right for the developing countries," he said.
Debunking reports quoting Morgan Stanley that ICICI Bank is among the Asian banks most leveraged to a bull market and thus most exposed to a downturn, Kamath said that the capital adequacy ratio of 13.4 per cent means that the "bank is not over-leveraged at all. In fact, we are reasonably leveraged."
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