The Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation of India's (ICICI) claim that its net profit has grown by 62 per cent has to be taken with a pinch of salt. The hype over ICICI's performance after the merger of Shipping Credit Investment Corporation (SCICI) is unjustified as the growth figures are not comparable. The figures are compared with its performance for 1995-96 when it was a single entity. A comparison of the figures has to be based on the total performance of SCICI and ICICI for both the years. When this is done, the picture that emerges is far from what ICICI has been projecting over the last few days.

Take the net profit figures for instance. The net profit growth is 25.4 per cent and not 62 per cent. So is the case with growth in networth, which is only 26.8 per cent and not 78 per cent.

Similarly, ICICI claims that its disbursements grew by 57 per cent from Rs 7120 crore in 1995-96 to Rs 11,181 crore. If we add Rs 2,464 crore (SCICI's disbursements) to the previous year's figure, the growth is only 16.6 per cent.

When it comes to sanctions, post-merger ICICI has been hit hard with a slump of nearly 30 per cent to Rs 14,313 crore from Rs 20,264 crore during 1995-96.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.