Temasek, Singapore government cut stake in ICICI Bank

ICICI Bank slipped 4.88% to Rs 847.20 at 13:03 IST on reports the Singapore government and its investment arm, Temasek Holdings, have been gradually reducing stake in ICICI Bank, their one of their biggest investments in India.

Meanwhile, the BSE Sensex was down 248.04 points, or 1.48%, to 16492.46.

On BSE, 11.05 lakh shares were traded in the counter as against an average daily volume of 13.57 lakh shares in the past one quarter.

The stock hit a high of Rs 898.50 and a low of Rs 840 so far during the day. The stock had hit a 52-week high of Rs 983.70 on 7 October 2009 and a 52-week low of Rs 252.75 on 6 March 2009.

The stock had outperformed the market over the past one month till 26 October 2009, rising 6.21% as compared to the Sensex 0.28% rise. It outperformed the market in past one quarter, gaining 16.15% as against 8.85% rise in the Sensex.

India's largest private sector bank by market capitalisation has an equity capital of Rs 1113.65 crore. Face value per share is Rs 10.

The current price of Rs 847.20 discounts the company's Q1 June 2009 annualised EPS of Rs 31.55, by a PE multiple of 26.85.

The collective holding of the Singapore government and its investment arm, Temasek Holdings in ICICI Bank has come down to 7.29% in the quarter ended September from nearly 9.27% in the quarter ended June 2009 and 9.91% in the quarter ended March 2009

Temasek said in a statement in Singapore that any stake sales are part of regular moves to review and rebalance its portfolio.

Temasek has been reducing its stakes in financial firms after making losses on its investments in Merrill Lynch and Barclays last year. It sold its stakes in the two Western banks at an estimated loss of $4 billion in its last financial year that ended in March 2009.

Meanwhile, bank shares witnessed across the board selling pressure after the central bank did not announce any hike in the ceiling on the portion of government securities that banks can park in held-to-maturity segment.

The market has been agog with talks of the central bank hiking the ceiling on the portion of government securities that banks can park in held-to-maturity (HTM). Banks do not have to make any mark-to-market provisions on securities held in the held-to-maturity (HTM) basket if prices of securities fall. Provisions have to be made out of profit and therefore, impact a bank's bottom line. Yields on ten-year government bonds have risen sharply this year. Bond prices and bond yields are inversely related.

Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), in its quarterly monetary policy review today, kept its benchmark lending and borrowing rates unchanged. It has also kept the cash reserve ratio (CRR), (the proportion of deposits banks have to keep with the RBI in reserve) untouched at 5%.

Opting to support a nascent economic recovery instead of tackling rising prices, the central bank left the repo rate (at which it lends short-term funds to banks) unchanged at 4.75%, and also the reverse repo rate (through which it absorbs liquidity from the banking system), unchanged at 3.25%.

The RBI has, however, hiked the statutory liquidity ratio (SLR) (the minimum amount of cash, gold or bonds banks need to maintain with themselves) to 25% from 24%.

ICICI Bank had sold 4.41% stake in software services provider 3i Infotech for Rs 46.17 crore on 30 September 2009, in open market transactions on BSE and NSE.

ICICI Bank, a promoter group firm of 3i Infotech, sold 28.42 lakh equity shares of the IT firm at a price of Rs 79.79 each, aggregating to Rs 22.67 crore, according to bulk deal data available on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

In addition, the bank also sold 29.35 lakh shares of 3i Infotech in another bulk deal on the National Stock Exchange at a price of Rs 80.05 per piece, totalling Rs 23.49 crore.

As per the shareholding information for the quarter ended June 2009, ICICI Bank held 9.62% stake in 3i Infotech.

LIC bought a large portion of the 3i Infotech shares which ICICI Bank sold. LIC bought 32 lakh shares in 3i Infotech for a total of Rs 25.27 crore in bulk deals at the NSE and the BSE.

As on June 2009, LIC India held 7.45% stake, or 97.47 lakh shares, in 3i Infotech.

ICICI Bank's net profit rose 20.6% to Rs 878.22 crore on a 2.2% decline in operating income to Rs 9223.32 crore in Q1 June 2009 over Q1 June 2008. Cost-cutting measures and treasury profits enabled the bank beat market estimates in Q1 June 2009.

ICICI Bank recorded a treasury income of Rs 714 crore in Q1 June 2009 as against a loss of Rs 594 crore in Q1 June 2008. The bank's employee cost fell 10.89% to Rs 466 crore and the direct market expenses fell 88.15% to Rs 27 crore in Q1 June 2009 over Q1 June 2008.

ICICI Bank provides retail-banking, corporate banking, cash management and treasury management services.