Singapore central bank picks up 11% of ICICI Bank’s Rs 15,000 crore QIP – Times of India

MUMBAI: Singapore’s central bank, the Monetary Authority of Singapore has emerged the largest investors in ICICI Bank’s qualified institutional placement of shares picking up 4.6 crore shares for Rs 1,662 crore, which is over 11% of the issue size. The second-largest investor is Morgan Stanley Investment Management with a Rs 1,086 crore investment followed by French bank Societe Generale which has purchased 2.3 crore shares for Rs 832 crore.
On Saturday, ICICI Bank announced that it has successfully raised Rs 15,000 crore by issuing equity at the rate of Rs 358 per share under a qualified institutional placement. The issue price was fixed at Rs 358 per equity share, which is at a premium of Rs 356 per unit. The bank’s board, which met on Saturday, approved the allotment of shares. The issue opened on August 10, 2020, and closed on August 14, 2020.
“The proceeds of the issue will be used towards strengthening the capital adequacy ratio of the bank and improve its competitive positioning and/ or general corporate requirements or any other purposes as may be permissible under the applicable law and approved by the board,” the bank said in a statement.
The government of Singapore through its investment arm GIC and the Monetary Authority of Singapore both have been big investors in the Indian capital markets. In November, the Singapore government and its monetary authority had invested over Rs 900 crore in Zee Entertainment Limited.
Indian lenders have been taking advantage of the ample liquidity in capital markets to issue equity and raise confidence capital to make up for any losses that might occur because of stress among borrowers due to the Covid-19 economic crisis. So far, Indian private lenders have raised over Rs 50,000 crore.