ICICI Bank gets equity capital repatriation from foreign units

Private sector lender ICICI Bank today said it has repatriated excess funds from its two overseas subsidiaries as part of capital optimisation and return on equity plans.

"The bank has, in March 2015, received further equity capital repatriation of CAD 80 million from ICICI Bank Canada and $75 million from ICICI Bank UK," it said in a BSE filing.

The bank has commenced efforts for repatriating capital from its overseas banking subsidiaries in order to optimise capital for the ICICI Group and improve its return on equity, it said.

The bank had repatriated $100 million of capital from its wholly-owned subsidiary in the UK in March 2013 and CAD 75 million from its wholly-owned subsidiary in Canada in May 2013.

ICICI Bank Canada and ICICI Bank UK had capital adequacy ratios of 33.2% and 21.8%, respectively as on December 31, 2014.

Post repatriation, share capital of ICICI Bank Canada is CAD 777 million and that of ICICI Bank UK is $420 million.

"ICICI Bank Ltd already has a strong capital adequacy ratio, and the above return of capital would further improve the same and enhance ICICI Bank's ability to optimise capital deployment and return on equity," the bank said.

ICICI Bank shares were trading 1.15% higher at Rs 318 per scrip during afternoon trade on the BSE.