Term-lending institution ICICI Ltd is planning to dilute its holding in subsidiary ICICI Infotech. "We are planning to offload some equity in the company during the current financial year," executive director Kalpana Morparia said.
In January this year, ICICI had sold 8 per cent in the company to Emirates Bank for Rs 58 crore. According to Morparia, ICICI Infotech has been valued at Rs 750 crore.
ICICI Infotech runs 18 call centres handling some 450,000 calls per month. According to Morparia, the company is planning to consolidate these 18 call centres into two with the new single number calling system in place. While one call centre will be located in Mumbai, the other will be located in Hyderabad.
ICICI Infotech reported a profit after tax of Rs 27.93 crore for 2000-01, up 165.74 per cent from Rs 10.51 crore recorded in 1999-2000. Its assets at the end of 2000-01 stood at Rs 356.4 crore against Rs 48.94 crore during the previous year.
So far, ICICI Infotech is running call centres only for the group's 22 retail products. According to Morparia, ICICI Infotech would leverage the skills to run call centres for others as well.
Morparia also confirmed that ICICI would dilute its stake in ICICI Bank from 46 per cent to 40 per cent during the financial year, as per the guidelines laid down by the Reserve Bank of India. "There are various options before us. It could happen through an ADR or through a merger, which will automatically bring down our shareholding. Anyway, there is a whole year ahead of us to do it," she said. Last year, Bank of Madura had merged into ICICI Bank.
The financial year will also see the merger of two fully owned subsidiaries of ICICI -- Webtrade and ICICI Capital. The company had announced the merger last year. While Webtrade has an online distribution network, ICICI Capital has an offline distribution network. "We are bringing the two networks under one umbrella," Morparia added.
