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Mumbai, Dec 7: Term-lending institution ICICI has drawn up plans for big mopups from the domestic debt market and has got rated for debt instruments worth Rs 17,500 crore. It plans to raise Rs 10,000 crore worth of long-term funds and a further Rs 7,500 crore in short-term debt.
Credit rating agency Icra has assigned a triple-A (AAA) rating to the Rs 10,000-crore long-term debt programme and an A1+ rating to the Rs 7,500-crore short-term instruments. ICICI's medium-term rating has been retained at AAA. ICICI officials were not available to comment on the programme.
ICICI disbursed Rs 15,800 crore in 1997-98, an increase of 41 per cent over the earlier year. The lending operations of the institution bucked the trend due to growth in infrastructure and oil & gas sectors which together accounted for 40 per cent of the disbursals.
The rating takes into account the premier position the company continues to occupy among financial institutions and the steps taken by it to prevent asset deterioration, an Icrarelease said.
ICICI is already set to cross the halfway mark of the Rs 3,000-crore umbrella prospectus with the launch of the Rs 300-crore fifth tranche of the safety bond issue on December 9. The coupons on the four instruments on offer in this issue remain unchanged from that of the previous retail debt issue.
The financial institution has so far garnered Rs 1,770 crore from the four previous issues, including the partially subscribed greenshoe options. ICICI collected Rs 472 crore in the first issue of Rs 300 crore plus the blueshoe option for same amount, Rs 504 crore in the July Rs 300 crore issue, Rs 417 crore in the August Rs 300 crore issue and Rs 427 crore in the Rs 400 crore October issue.
The umbrella issue is being floated as "unsecured redeemable bonds in the nature of debentures aggregating Rs 300 with a right to retain oversubscription of up to Rs 300 crore." The issue will open for subscription on December 9, 1998, and remain open till December 21, 1998.
The share of non-performingloans in the total portfolio has risen both at the gross and the net levels, which according to Icra is a function of the prevailing economic situation. The other fallout of the current economic downturn has been the squeeze in margins which has been on account of decline in gross yields, increased reliance on market borrowings and a rise in NPA levels. The impact on profits has however been offset by volume growth and by an increase in non-fund based income.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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