Page 19 - Banking Finance February 2025

PRESS RELEASE

ICICI Bank sets up a branch at Maha Kumbh Mela 2025 for pilgrims
ICICI Bank has set up a branch at the Maha Kumbh Mela Ground in Prayagraj to provide essential banking services to
pilgrims and visitors during the event. The branch, located in Sector 22, near the Jhunsi Police Line, will operate from
January 13, 2025, to February 26, 2025.
Swami Avdheshanand Giri, Acharya Mahamandaleshwar of Juna Akhara, inaugurated the branch.
The branch offers various services, including currency and coin exchange, cash deposits and withdrawals, forex services,
RTGS, NEFT, and fund transfers for pilgrims. It operates from 10:00 A.M. to 3:30 P.M. on Monday to Friday and on the
first, third and fifth Saturdays of the month. The branch is equipped with an ATM, which is available 24x7.
In addition to the branch, ICICI Bank has deployed a mobile ATM outside the Mela ground. The ATM van will be stationed
at various localities across Prayagraj. It will be available from 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM and will continue its services till the
end of the Maha Kumbh Mela. The mobile ATM will offer all the services available at a regular ATM, including cash
withdrawals, fund transfers to registered payees, generating ATM PINs, making loan and credit card payments, and
booking fixed deposits, among others. The customers can also avail facility of cardless cash withdrawal from these mobile
ATMs.
ICICI Bank has over 400 branches and more than 1,200 ATMs and cash recycling machines (CRMs) in Uttar Pradesh.

Exim Bank opens debt markets with USD 1 billion bond at tightest

spread ever from India

India Exim Bank has successfully issued 10-year US$1bn Senior Unsecured Bonds in the 144A/Reg-S format. This issuance
makes India Exim Bank the first Indian issuer to open the markets for dollar bond issuances in 2025.

On the back of a strong start to the year and a constructive market at Asia open, India Exim Bank capitalised on the
strong demand momentum?, with an intraday execution and tightening of 30 bps from the Initial Price Guidance to
achieve a pricing of UST10+100 bps, with a negative new issue concession of 5 bps. This transaction also marks the
tightest spread ever achieved for a 10-year public issuance out of India and the tightest ‘BBB -’ 10-year USD public
issuance out of Asia ex-Japan.
In terms of geographic distribution, the bonds were well distributed, with 50% in Asia, 32% in EMEA region and 18% in
the USA. In terms of distribution to investor types, the bonds were distributed to high quality investors with around 64%
distributed to Asset and Fund managers, 18% to Banks, and 16% to Insurance, Pension Funds & Public Sector, followed
by private banks and others.
BofA Securities, Citigroup, HSBC, J.P. Morgan and Standard Chartered Bank acted as Joint Lead Managers and Joint
Bookrunners for the offering. India Exim Bank has been rated as Baa3 (Stable) by Moody's, BBB- (Positive) by S&P and
BBB- (Stable) by Fitch.

Speaking on the occasion, Ms. Harsha Bangari, Managing Director of India Exim Bank, said, "We are delighted to open
the debt markets for Indian issuers with the tightest spread ever achieved from India. Yet another issuance from India
Exim Bank that sets the benchmark for a well-timed and quality issuance."

"India Exim Bank has been agile and continuously monitoring the market for attractive issuance windows. The quasi-
sovereign nature of the Bank, strong credit profile and EMBIG index eligibility of the bonds garnered significant interest
from marquee investors, with a peak order book of USD 2.7+bn. Given the quality bookbuild and the large book size, we
elected to move quickly to achieve a significant price tightening by 30 bps from the initial?? price guidance." added Ms.
Deepali Agrawal, Deputy Managing Director, India Exim Bank.

BANKING FINANCE | FEBRUARY | 2025 | 17