ICICI Bank seeks $1.5 bn in biggest borrowing

ICICI Bank Ltd, which raised $5 billion last month in India's biggest share sale, is borrowing a record $1.5 billion to fund growth in demand for credit, said Chief Financial Officer Vishakha Mulye.

ICICI is seeking the biggest loan by an Indian bank to meet credit expansion of as much as 30 per cent in the fastest-growing major economy after China. The amount is almost twice the syndicated borrowings of Indian banks this year and shy of the $1.86 billion total loans Mumbai-based ICICI took out in 2006.

The loan will take the amount of money ICICI has raised this year to $10.5 billion, enabling it to boost lending to Indian companies and its swelling middle class. The bank has sold $4 billion of bonds this year.

ICICI's borrowing ``is required to feed the growing demand for loans in the country,'' said Sudhindra Ballal who helps manage $150 million of Asian assets, including Indian equities, at Daiwa Asset Management in Singapore. ``There is a lot of potential.''