ICICI Bank  has raised £350 million ($690 million) through an international bond offering, a top official said.

The money will be used for lending for various projects in Bahrain and the rest of the region, said ICICI Bahrain country head Ajay Sharma.

'The bank, acting through its Bahrain branch, successfully priced its three-year fixed rate £350m under its Medium Term Note Programme (MTN),' he said.

'The issue marks the inaugural deal in the sterling market from an Indian issuer and is also the largest deal in the sterling market from Asia.

'The deal generated good investor response resulting in the deal being upsized to £350m. The offering had a £460m order book with a total of 32 investors.'

From a geographical breakdown perspective there was 95 per cent participation from UK and balance investors were from the rest of Europe, said Sharma.

'From an investor breakdown perspective, 80 per cent of the securities were sold to fund managers, 17 per cent  to insurance agencies and three per cent to banks and pension funds,' he revealed.

The offering was lead managed by BNP Paribas, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank AG and the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation. The three-year fixed rate notes of £350m were priced at a spread of 83 basis points over UK gilts. The notes were settled on May 18.

ICICI Bank is India's second largest bank and largest private sector bank with over 50 years of financial experience and with assets of $79 billion as of March 31. TradeArabia News Service