MUMBAI: ICICI Bank on Saturday approved the raising of additional equity capital through a public issue in the domestic market and an issue of American Depository Shares (ADSs) in the U.S., aggregating around Rs. 20,000 crore ($5 billion).

"It is an early move seeing an opportunity in the country in the coming years,'' K. V. Kamath, Managing Director and CEO, ICICI Bank, said.

Addressing a press conference here to announce the financial performance of the bank, Mr. Kamath said the process of the public issue would start from Monday onwards and it would `hit the market in June.'

Going by the infrastructure growth plans on the macro level, India would require investments of around $500 billion in the next three years, Mr. Kamath said, adding that, "ICICI Bank proposes to enhance its equity capital as a proactive move to leverage business opportunities, maintain appropriate regulatory capitalisation levels and move towards global benchmarks of scale.''

Meanwhile, the bank has posted a net profit of Rs. 3,110.22 crore for the year ended March 31, 2007, as compared to Rs. 2,540.07 crore for the year ended March 31, 2006, showing a rise of 22 per cent.

Total income has increased from Rs. 18,487.01 crore to Rs. 28,923.46 crore.

"The net profit for the full year would have grown by 40 per cent, but for the one-time provisioning of Rs. 310 crore as `amortisation of premium' on government securities in the fourth quarter,'' the bank said.

The board of ICICI Bank has recommended a dividend of 100 per cent, that is, Rs. 10 per equity share of the face value of Rs. 10 for the year ended March 31, 2007.

The bank has posted a net profit of Rs. 825.12 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2007, as compared to Rs. 789.93 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2006, an increase of four per cent.

Total income has increased from Rs. 5,507.45 crore to Rs. 8,495.52 crore.

On a consolidated basis, the group has posted a net profit of Rs. 2,760.63 crore for the year ended March 31, 2007, as compared to Rs. 2,420.09 crore for the year ended March 31, 2006.

Total income has increased from Rs. 24,615.51 crore to Rs. 41,363.79 crore. On bad loans in the housing sector, the bank's Joint Managing Director, Kalpana Morparia, said, "Our gross non-performing assets (NPAs) are Rs. 4,850 (as compared to around Rs. 3,000 crore in the previous year); of this 45 per cent is in the retail and in this 30 per cent is in non-collateralised assets like credit cards.''

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