So far under the Rs 3000 crore umbrella prospectus, ICICI has been able to garner only around Rs 2000 crore. And with the muted response to the latest Safety bond issue, which closed for subscription on December 21, ICICI needs to mop another Rs 1000 crore through the two tranches to meet its umbrella prospectus target.

Safety Bonds December '98 has not fared well. Although the issue has mopped up the target amount of Rs 300 crore, in terms for oversubscription, it has not much success.

According to market sources, the issue has mobilised only Rs 350-380 crore as against a target of Rs 300 crore (plus green shoe option of another Rs 300 crore). The subdued response to the issue is understandable as the coupon offered by ICICI was 75 basis points lowerthan IDBI's latest Flexibond issue. Compared with IDBI's 14 per cent on the Regular Income Bond (annual option), ICICI Safety Bonds offered only 13.75 per cent.

Of the five Safety Bond tranches that have hit the market, only one -- that of July, received an encouraging response. The issue mopped up over Rs 500 crore thanks to the attractive rates offered by ICICI. The other tranches managed a little over Rs 400 crore each.

While the April issue mopped up Rs 422 crore, the August issue saw an inflow of Rs 417 crore. Collections in the October issue was the worst with an oversubscription of only Rs 10-20 crore.

This time around, the response has also not been very good and the oversubscription is only around Rs 50-80 crore. The January-end/early February issue will compete for funds with IDBI and IFCI who are also planning to come with retail bond issues at that time.