ICICI with BoB, Citi to set up first IDF

ICICI Bank, Bank of Baroda and Citi Financial have joi­ned hands to form a nonbanking financial company (NBFC) in order to float the country’s first infrastructure development fund (IDF).While ICICI Bank and BoB will pick up 30 percent stake each, Citi Financial will have close to 30 percent.The balance will be shared by other financial entities.ICICI Bank, the sponsor bank in the joint venture, has received Reserve Bank of India (RBI) approval to set up the IDF.

According to RBI norms, a trustbased IDF would normally be a mutual fund, while a company based IDF would normally be an NBFC. Banks are expected to take the NBFC route for setting up the IDF, for which they need RBI’s approval. As of now, only the ICICI Bankled IDF has received approval from RBI.The Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee in his last Budget speech had announced the setting up of IDF.