ICICI Bank retail portfolio expanded 400 times in 3 yrs

ICICI Bank's retail portfolio has grown by over 400 times over the last three years. In absolute terms, the retail assets were up from Rs 6,080 crore in March 2002 to Rs 28,265 crore December 2003.

In March 2003, the retail asset base was to the tune of Rs 19,160 crore. Its retail assets are now close to 50 per cent of its total advances.

The bank's largest exposure to a single industry excluding retail finance was to the service sector, which was 8.1 per cent of its total exposure.

The bank, in its draft Red Herring prospectus submitted to the Securities and Exchange Board of India, has said that retail products and services will continue to be the primary driver to the bank's growth.

Its retail business has zoomed to 28.2 per cent of its total assets as in December 2003, up from 22.8 per cent on March 31 and 7.6 per cent in March 2002. The retail portfolio now accounts for 48.9 per cent of the banks total advances, said the prospectus.

The bank's home loan portfolio increased to Rs 14,345 crore against Rs 9,140 crore on March 31, 2003 and Rs 1,261 crore on March 31, 2002.

Automobile financing also rose to Rs 578 crore in December 2003 compared with Rs 446 crore on March 31 last year and Rs 270 crore in March 2002.

Personal loan disbursements increased to Rs 890 crore in December against Rs 802 crore in March 2003 and Rs 404 crore in March 2002.

Its two-wheeler loan portfolio grew to Rs 929 crore against Rs 572 crore in March 2003 and Rs 235 crore in the corresponding period last fiscal.

For the period under review the banks credit card business rose to Rs 893 crore against Rs 575 crore in March 2003 and Rs 355 crore in the same period last year.

THE TOTAL EXPOSURE BREAK-UP: Five industries "" services, iron and steel, power telecom and engineering "" account for 34.5 of ICICI bank's total exposure.

As on December 31, 2003, about 44.3 per cent of its gross non performing asset (NPA) portfolio concentrated in three sectors "" chemicals, including fertilisers (19.6 per cent), textile (15.6 per cent) and power (9.1 per cent). These sectors in the recent past have been adversely affected by economic conditions.

Aggrevation of financial difficulties in these sector could spur the banks NPA levels further, said ICICI Banks Draft Red Herring Prospectus submitted to the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).

The bank's net NPA as on December 31, 2003 stood at Rs 3,189 crore representing 4.7 per cent of net customer assets, as compared to Rs 3,151 crore representing 4.9 per cent of the net customer assets at the fiscal end 2003.

The banks total exposure to borrowers as on December 31 stood at Rs 1,00,155 crore. The largest borrower group at December 31, 2003 accounted for approximately 5.2 per cent of its total exposure and 57.3 per cent of its total capital funds.

The 10 largest single borrowers accounted for approximately 14.8 per cent of the total exposure and the 10 largest borrower groups accounted for 23.6 per cent of its total exposure.