ICICI denies rumours of top management selling bank's shares

ICICI denies rumours of top management selling bank's shares

Press Trust Of India / Mumbai September 17, 2008, 15:52 IST

Country's largest private sector lender ICICI Bank today said its top management members have not sold any shares of the bank during the current year.

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The clarification came following market rumours that some members of ICICI Bank top management have been selling the shares of the bank in the last few days following the global financial crisis.

"A malicious rumour is being spread to the effect that some of the top management have been selling ICICI Bank shares in the last few days. These rumours are baseless," an ICICI Bank statement said here.

ICICI Bank shares were trading at Rs 558.50, down by Rs 33.15 from its previous close, just prior to the market closing.

ICICI Bank on Tuesday said that it would make an additional provisioning of $28 million (around Rs 112-crore) to cover its investments in the collapsed US investment bank Lehman Brothers' senior bonds.

However, the bank has not been majorly impacted owing to its exposure to Lehman Brothers, the bank said.

"There is no other material impact on ICICI Bank or ICICI Bank UK plc on account of exposure to Lehman Brothers," ICICI Bank's Joint Managing Director Chanda Kochhar had said.

ICICI Bank has around $80 million exposure in senior bonds of Lehman Brothers Inc, which constitutes less than one per cent of ICICI Bank UK plc's total assets, which are around $8.7 billion.