ICICI: UK unit has no US subprime exposure

MUMBAI (Reuters) - ICICI Bank, India's second-largest lender, said on Monday its UK unit had no exposure to the U.S. subprime credit and 98 percent of its non-Indian investment was rated investment grade by rating agencies.

The unit had a total balance sheet size of $8.5 billion, with $3.5 billion constituting its non-India investment book, it said in a statement.

The statement came after ICICI shares fell as much as 13.9 percent to a two-year low on Monday on foreign fund selling and worries about how the global credit problems would affect the bank.

ICICI said on Sept. 16 it had an exposure of about $81 million to Lehman Brothers senior bonds and would need to increase provisions by about $28 million to cover half that.

Brokerage Edelweiss Capital has said it expected ICICI to post $200 million in losses on bonds, including debt issued by Lehman.

The bank's joint managing director and chief executive appeared on television on consecutive days earlier this month and said the bank was extremely healthy and had ample capital, after market worries had grown about ICICI's exposure to the credit turmoil.

By 3:25 p.m., ICICI shares were 11.9 percent lower at 494 rupees in a Mumbai market that was down 4.2 percent.