ICICI Bank, on Tuesday, confirmed its exposure to troubled Singapore oil-trading company Hin Leong Trading Pte Ltd, and said it is taking “due steps” to protect its interests.
“The bank, in the normal course of its business, has exposure to the borrower group in question, and is taking due steps to protect its interests, and will appropriately reflect the same in its financial statements, as it would do in respect of all its banking exposures,” the private sector lender said in a regulatory filing.
ICICI Bank was asked for a clarification on the issue by stock exchanges reports of its $100 million exposure to HLT. The bank’s scrip fell by over 8 per cent and closed 8.28 per cent lower at ₹331.55 apiece on the BSE.
ICICI Bank is also understood to have issued notices to impound two vessels operated by Ocean Tankers, which is a unit of HLT. The tankers – Wu Yi San and Chang Bai San – were carrying cargo financed by the lender.
It is the only Indian bank with an exposure to the group, although there are about 23 secured creditors. According to a court filing reviewed byReuters, HLT’s founder and director had directed the company not to disclose the losses, which have been running into hundreds of millions of dollars over several years.