I-Sec net vaults 40%

ICICI Securities (I-Sec), the investment banking arm of ICICI Bank, yesterday announced a 39.8 per cent increase in profit after tax at Rs 143.9 crore for the year ended March 31, 2004.

This was on the back of an increased gross income of Rs 321 crore, of which Rs 60 crore was by way of fee-based income and Rs 300 crore in treasury income.

The board declared a dividend payout ratio of 44.75 per cent, amounting to Rs 91 crore, to ICICI Bank. Among ICICI Bank subsidiaries, I-Sec posted the highest profit in fiscal 2004. Commenting on the company's performance, S Mukerjee, I-Sec managing director and CEO, said: "Income from fee-based activities grew in the third quarter on the closure of various M&A (mergers and acquisitions) deals and the number of public offerings that came to the market."

Apart from the Rs 3,500 crore worth of initial public offerings I-Sec managed, the investment banker also closed M&A deals aggregating $ 645 million. In contrast, the trading environment was quite volatile, he added.

I-Sec plans to seize global opportunities in research as it plans to venture into regional research for foreign fund houses. "We have been empanelled by 90 foreign institutional investors (FIIs) for undertaking their research on Indian companies. We propose to extend the research coverage and plan to start with Asian stocks," Mukerjee said.

I-Sec could also look at opportunities of business process outsourcing (BPO) even as a lot of big fund houses have captive shops in the country.

"Our global plans dovetail well with talks of Indian depository receipts. We deal with so many funds so we know what these fund houses want," Mukerjee said.