ICICI Bank floats ICICI Holdings

The board of directors of ICICI Bank (NYSE: IBN) at its meeting held at Jodhpur on March 1-3, 2007 approved, subject to necessary approvals, the incorporation of a new wholly-owned subsidiary, ICICI Holdings, and the transfer of its investments in ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company Limited (ICICI Life), ICICI Lombard General Insurance

Company Limited (ICICI General), Prudential ICICI Asset Management Company Limited (ICICI AMC) and Prudential ICICI Trust Limited (ICICI Trust) to this new company. ICICI Bank currently holds approximately 74% of ICICI Life and ICICI General and 51% of ICICI AMC and ICICI Trust. These investments would be transferred to ICICI Holdings at the book value in the books of ICICI Bank (currently about Rs. 1,950 crore).

ICICI Life and ICICI General are the largest life insurance and general insurance private sector companies in India. The growth momentum in the insurance sector is expected to continue given the growth of the Indian economy, rising household incomes and growing penetration of insurance products. This would lead to additional capital requirements for the insurance businesses. ICICI AMC manages the largest mutual fund in India1, and is well-placed to capitalise on the growth opportunities in this space. ICICI Holdings may consider a public listing of its equity shares at an appropriate time to meet a part of the further capital requirements of ICICI Life and ICICI General. ICICI Bank intends to retain majority ownership in ICICI Holdings.

It is proposed that with effect from June 1, 2007, Ms. Kalpana Morparia, Joint Managing Director, ICICI Bank, would assume responsibility for ICICI Holdings as its Managing Director & CEO, subject to necessary approvals.

About ICICI Life: ICICI Life is India's largest private sector life insurance company with a market share of about 29% in the private sector and 9% overall during April 2006-January 2007. For the nine months ended December 31, 2006, ICICI Life had a total premium income (including renewal premium) of over Rs. 4,500 crore. While ICICI Life had an accounting loss of Rs. 348 crore during this period, its unaudited New Business Achieved Profit (NBAP) was Rs. 540 crore. NBAP is a metric for the economic value of the new business written during a defined period. It is measured as the present value of all the future profits for the shareholders, on account of the new business based on standard assumptions of mortality, expenses and other parameters.

About ICICI General: ICICI General is India's largest private sector general insurance company with a market share of about 36% in the private sector and 13% overall during April 2006-January 2007. ICICI General has expanded its distribution and substantially increased its business volumes with a growing proportion of non-corporate business, which incrementally accounts for over 60% of its gross written premiums. For the nine months ended December 31, 2006, ICICI General had a total premium income of over Rs. 2,300 crore, combined ratio of under 100% and profit after tax of Rs. 49 crore.

About ICICI AMC: ICICI AMC manages the Prudential ICICI Mutual Fund, which was India's largest mutual fund at February 28, 2007 with assets under management of about Rs. 43,300 crore and a market share of about 12%. For the nine months ended December 31, 2006, ICICI AMC achieved a profit after tax of Rs. 33 crore. ICICI Trust is the trustee company for the fund.