| ICICI Bank's holding in SIB had fallen to 6.5 per cent from 11.14 per cent as on December 31, 2005, following a rights issue in January. |
| ICICI Bank has been paring its stakes in SIB and Federal Bank, another Kerala-based bank, as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) does not allow a bank to hold more than five per cent stake in another bank. |
| These stakes were acquired before the guidelines came into force. ICICI Bank had last week sold 3 per cent stake in Federal Bank for Rs 48.10 crore to International Finance Corporation (IFC), bringing down its stake to 6.2 per cent in Federal. |
| Analysts said more than the urgency to comply with the RBI guidelines, it is the liquidity crunch that has compelled the country's second largest bank to sell its stakes in the two banks. The sale will also boost the bank's earnings in the fourth quarter ending March 31, 2006. |
| The guidelines had also prompted the UK-based HSBC to reduce its holding in UTI Bank. Last month, HSBC sold 7.19 per cent stake in UTI Bank for Rs 638 crore, bringing down its holding in UTI Bank to 4.99 per cent. |
| Meanwhile, SIB has announced its expansion plans. It will increase the number of branches to 450 by the end of this month. At present, the bank has 435 branches. |
| SIB Chairman V A Joseph said the expansion would enable it to improve its geographical reach to 19 states by March 2006. At present, the bank has a presence in 17 states. |
| The bank has set a target of achieving business worth Rs 16,000 crore during the current financial year "� 15 per cent growth from Rs 14,000 crore registered last year. |
| Further, by initiating aggressive recovery measures, SIB is planning to bring down the net NPA significantly from the last year's level of 3.81 per cent. SIB had recently raised Rs 150 crore through a follow-on public issue. |
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