ICICI Bank, India’s second largest private sector bank, yesterday launched its Infrastructure and Real Estate Fund, through which it aims to initially raise $100 million (Dh367m) from the Gulf Co-operation Council and African countries.
“The fund is largely focused on Middle Eastern investors and gives them the chance to be part of India’s growth story,” said Chetan Mehra, regional head, Private Banking and NRI services (GCC and Africa), ICICI Bank Limited.
The fund, which offers a drawdown and close-ended option, will have a minimum investment level of $50,000 (Dh183,500) and will be open to all nationalities.
The drawdown facility will provide investors with the option of staggered investment by paying 50 per cent of investment amount upfront and the balance within six months. Besides, it will allow investors to make disciplined investments since it is a three-year, close-ended scheme, with restricted liquidity after the first year.
The fund can be extended by two years (year after year) at the time of redemption after three years to manage risk, Mehra added.
“We can accept a higher amount and there is no upper limit for the end. Given how markets are performing now, we expect a return of 20 to 25 per cent per year,” said Pankaj Ganjoo, deputy general manager, ICICI Bank Limited.
The fund will be exclusively available for ICICI Bank Global Private Clients on a private placement basis. Investment advisors to the fund will be ICICI Bank’s asset management arm in India, ICICI Prudential Asset Management Company Limited, and it will be advised under the guidance of Nilesh Shah, Chief Investment Officer, ICICI Prudential AMC.
Infrastructure and real estate are two of the most promising sectors in the Indian economy. With a staggering $500bn planned investment in infrastructure in the next five to seven years, and $50bn in the real estate sector in the next three years, these two sectors will together propel the Indian economy into an altogether different stratosphere and ensure a double-digit gross domestic product growth.
ICICI Bank’s third-quarter earnings grew by more than 35 per cent to Rs12.3 billion (Dh1.15bn), compared with Rs9.1bn in same period
last year. The bank has a network of more than 955 branches and extension counters, and around 3,685 ATMs all across India.
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