News: ICICI Bank named as India's best borrower

(BL 31/10/2006) Mumbai - Domestic private sector banking major ICICI Bank has been named as India's best borrower in a poll conducted by the Hong Kong-based business and investment magazine FinanceAsia.

According to the latest annual fixed income research poll conducted by FinanceAsia, the results of which would be published in the November issue of the magazine, Hutchison Whampoa was named as the best borrower in Asia as well as Hong Kong.

Hutchison Telecommunications International Ltd (HTIL), a subsidiary of Hutchison Whampoa, holds a majority stake in India's fourth-largest telecom operator Hutch Essar.

ICICI Bank has bagged the award for the country's best borrower in the poll conducted in the month of September, which received votes from 354 fixed-income investors across Asia.

The research poll analysed the market participants' views on the Asian markets, views on credit rating agencies, as well as voting for the best borrowers and the best banks at producing credit research.

CNOOC topped the list in China, while Indosat, KDB, Petronas, DBS and PTT were the respective winners in Indonesia, South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand, the magazine said.

In another category of the same poll, global research agency Standard and Poor's (S&P) was voted as Asia's most influential credit rating agency for the sixth year in a row.

S&P claimed the top position in all four individual categories of corporates, sovereign, banks and structured finance.