ICICI Bank, the country's largest private sector bank, is planning to raise $1 billion through issuance of medium term notes (MTNs) for funding the growth of its overseas operations.

The MTNs would be of three to five years tenure and the amount would be raised over a period of time and currently the modalities are being worked out, an ICICI Bank official said in Mumbai on Monday.

The private bank would be filing the shelf prospectus, which is in line with an umbrella prospectus, with the Luxembourg Stock Exchange, he said, adding there could be many issuances under the overall limit.

The entire proceeds would be used in meeting bank's liabilities requirements for its overseas operations, which include the offshore banking unit in Singapore.

The official said filing a shelf prospectus is beneficial as it enables the bank to raise the money or a part of it as and when required without going for approvals for every issuance. This would also help the bank to quickly take advantage of interest rate fluctuations.

ICICI Bank has subsidiaries in Canada and the United Kingdom. It also has offshore banking units in Singapore and SEEPZ (Mumbai) and representative offices in Dubai, Shanghai and New York.

The bank had raised around $300 million through Eurobonds in October last. The bank had also raised Rs 3,050 crore (Rs 30.50 billion) via a domestic equity issue in April 2004.