‘No Citi, UBS like subprime crisis in India’
Pooh-poohing the doomsayers, K V Kamath, the new CII President on Thursday exuded confidence that UBS and Citi kind of crisis will not be repeated in India, saying the total derivative exposure of all the banks here may be just quarter a per cent of USD 500 billion balance sheet.
“If our (ICICI Bank’s) balance sheet is USD 100 billion, SBI balance sheet is USD 150 billion … We are looking at Indian banks having a total size of USD 500 billion. It is not even half a per cent of that, it might be quarter per cent,” Kamath said when asked about Indian banks’ exposure.
Asked if Citigroup and UBS, the global banking giants who lost billions due to subprime crisis, could happen in India, Kamath, who heads the country’s biggest private sector lender ICICI Bank, said, “Nothing can happen like that.
PE investments to continue unabated in India
Private equity investments, which ballooned to nearly 25 billion dollars over the past four years are likely to continue strongly through 2010, driven by robust economic growth and attractive market valuations, a latest report says.
According to a study by global consulting firm Boston Analytics, around 903 private equity investments worth 24.8 billion dollars in value were made in India from 2004-2007, with more than 45 of those deals exceeding 100 million dollar.