Team News Riveting
Amidst strong campaign going on across the country to boycott China, the People Bank of China had invested in the ICICI Bank during the private lender’s recent Rs 15,000 crore capital raising.
Banking experts however said the volume was nominal and would not have any big financial impact with China’s central bank investing in the ICICI. It would be more of an emotional feeling than financial, they said, adding that just an investment of Rs 15 crore in ICICI would not leave big impact for the Chinese Bank that had more share in another Indian bank.
The development comes even as India and China continue to exchange barbs over border issues. Besides, the Covid-19 crises and adverse impact on trade that China had been eyeing, India had amending its FDI norms and took a closer look on Chinese money pouring into Indian entities.
China’s central bank, People’s Bank of China (PBOC) was on the list of 357 institutional investors who subscribed to the qualified institutional placement (QIP), injecting Rs 15 crore into ICICI Bank. The list included Government of Singapore, Morgan Investment and Societe Generale, as well as domestic mutual funds, insurance companies, and global institutions.
PBOC was on the Indian government’s radar recently after it raised its stake in mortgage lender HDFC to slightly over 1 percent during the quarter that ended on March 31, 2020. PBOC cut its stake later as it was not mentioned in HDFC’s shareholding disclosure for the June quarter.
