FinanceAsia names ICICI as India's best borrower

MUMBAI: Domestic private sector banking major ICICI Bank has been named as India's best borrower in a poll conducted by Hong Kong-based business and investment magazine FinanceAsia.

According to the latest annual fixed income research poll conducted by FinanceAsia, results of which would be published in the November issue of the magazine, Hutchison Whampoa was named as the best borrower in Asia as well as Hong Kong.

Hutchison Telecommunications International Ltd (HTIL), a subsidiary of Hutchison Whampoa, holds a majority stake in India's fourth-largest telecom operator Hutch Essar.

ICICI Bank has bagged the award for the country's best borrower in the poll conducted in the month of September, which received votes from 354 fixed-income investors across Asia.

The research poll analysed the market participants' views on the Asian markets, views on credit rating agencies, as well as voting for the best borrowers and the best banks at producing credit research.

CNOOC topped the list in China, while Indosat, KDB, Petronas, DBS and PTT were the respective winners in Indonesia, South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand, the magazine said.

In another category of the same poll, global research agency Standard and Poor's was voted as Asia's most influential credit rating agency for the sixth year in a row.

S&P claimed the top position in all four individual categories of corporates, sovereign, banks and structured finance.

S&P's Asia Pacific head and executive managing director Tom Schiller said in a statement that maintaining a leading position in the poll for six consecutive years is a great credit to our entire team across the credit ratings practice in Asia, who have played a significant role in building a strong credit culture, ratings practice, and bond markets in Asia.

S&P had entered Asia in 1986 and has expanded its presence to 23 locations and over 3,000 staff across the region. In 2005, it had acquired majority ownerships in two of the regions influential domestic rating agencies, namely Taiwan Ratings Corp and India's largest credit rating agency CRISIL.

In the overall fixed-income research category, Swiss financial services major UBS toppled US-based Citigroup as Asia's best bank providing fixed income research services for the year by a narrow margin.

UBS, which moved up from its second place last year, received an aggregate vote of 659, as against Citigroup's 624 votes.

Other banks that improved their standing in this year's poll include HSBC (which moved to third rank), Merrill Lynch (which moved up to seventh) and Lehman Brothers.

A strong player in fixed-income research in the US and Europe, Lehman has made a big push in Asia and jumped to the number nine spot overall and even came fourth in the high-yield category, the magazine said.