I stand by my customers, shareholders: Kamath
Digging his heels for a hard battle against market manipulators, ICICI Bank chief K V Kamath cancelled all his engagements, including a France visit as leader of a delegation, to stand by the bank, its customers and stakeholders, which include some major foreign investors.
"I have to prioritise what I see as urgencies. I have to stand by my company, my staff, my customers, my stakeholders," said Kamath, who was slated to go for 'EU-India Business Summit' in Paris starting Tuesday in his capacity as president of Confederation of Indian Industry.
Taking charge to assuage the high valued as well as retail clientele, Kamath said that the kind of attack mounted through malicious and baseless rumours was possibly the biggest challenge of this kind and exuded confidence in the Bank's strong financial position and wisdom of stakeholders.
"None of our major investors, including Temasek, have panicked or talked of concerns. No body has raised any issue. We pro-actively continue to communicate with them. . . (There is) no panic call from major foreign shareholders," Kamath told PTI in an interview while continuing to take some key telephone calls.
ICICI has nearly 70 per cent foreign ownership, including stake held by Singapore state investor Temasek and the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (CIG).
Amid the ongoing American financial crisis, ICICI shares lost close to 14 per cent yesterday in a continuous hammering down of its shares amid panic selling fuelled by rumours that the Bank was under acute crisis.
Image: ICICI managing director K V Kamath of the ICICI Bank. | Photograph: Dirk Waem/AFP/Getty Images
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