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March 25, 2008 |
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ICICI BANK: Jefferies Downgrades Firm from Buy to Underperform Equity trading firm Jefferies & Co. have downgraded ICICI Bank Ltd. from "Buy" to "Underperform," according to a March 20 post at StreetInsider.com. Price target dropped from US$87 to US$29, Jefferies pointed out. The Troubled Company Reporter-Asia Pacific previously reported that ICICI Bank Joint Managing Director Chanda Kochhar said that the bank suffered US$50 million of investment losses this quarter in addition to the US$70 million provided for in the prior quarter. According to various reports, the government said that ICICI bank lost US$264 million on account of the sub-prime crisis. But, contrary to the reports, the bank asserted that it has no material direct or indirect exposure to U.S. sub-prime credit. The bank recently repurchased and hence extinguished a total of US$100 million of bonds issued in its Bahrain branch: -- US$50 million out of the US$750 million 5.75% bonds due 2012 issued on Jan. 12, 2007; and -- US$50 million out of the US$2 billion 6.625% bonds due 2012 issued on Oct. 3, 2007. Headquartered in Mumbai, India, ICICI Bank Limited -- http://www.icicibank.com/ -- is a financial services group providing a variety of banking and financial services, including project and corporate finance, working capital finance, venture capital finance, investment banking, treasury products and services, retail banking, broking and insurance. It also has interests in the software development, software services and business process outsourcing businesses. The Company's operations have been classified into three segments: Commercial Banking, Investment Banking and Others. It has subsidiaries in the United Kingdom, Canada and Russia, branches in Singapore and Bahrain, and representative offices in the United States, China, United Arab Emirates, Bangladesh and South Africa. * * * On Aug. 15, 2006, Standard & Poor's assigned its 'BB-' rating to the hybrid Tier-1 securities to be issued by ICICI Bank Ltd. On Oct. 16, S&P assigned its 'BB+' issue rating to the bank's senior unsecured, five-year, fixed-rate U.S. dollar notes. |
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