This is in sharp contrast to a 75 per cent growth in sanctions (Rs 24,717 crore) and 41 per cent growth in disbursements (Rs 15,807 crore) registered in 1997-98.

ICICI which was first among the financial institutions to release its operation figure on Monday said that long-term funding continues to be its primary activity with long-term prime rate (LTPR) related loans accounting for 52 per cent of total disbursals.

"In line with ICICI's strategy of proividing funding across the maturity spectrum, during 1998-99, short-term prime rate and medium-term prime rate related disbursals accounted for 33 per cent of total disbursals,'' said the ICICI release.

In its lending portfolio, the foreign currency loans account for only six per cent of total disbursals, reflecting the lower demand for foreign currency funds. Thebalance nine per cent of total disbursals comprised leasing deferred credit, line of credit, retail financing and other forms of assistance during the year.

While the infrastructure and oil and gas sectors aggregated 48 per cent and 37 per cent of approvals and disbursals respectively, non-corporate finance assistance accounted for 30 per cent and 35 per cent approvals and disbursal, respectively.

The instititutions total exposure for infrastucture is estimated at Rs 2,885 crore, recording a growth of 15 per cent during the year.

Among infrastructural projects, both power and mining constitute five per cent of the total exposure. The power sector has received Rs 996 crore while telcom has got Rs 226 crore during the year. The transportation sector has received Rs 762 crore (four per cent) during the year.

The institution disbursed Rs 4,300 crore towards oil, gas, petrochemicals and fertilisers sectors recording 22 per cent growth during the year.

ICICI's project finance assistance to the traditionalmanufacturing sector was 19 per cent of total total approvals and 25 of the total disbursals.

The institution has improved the risk profile of its asset portfolio by continued focus on top quality corporqte finance and structured project finance asset, the release said.

Sanctions dip 12.7 per cent in Q4

Sanctions have dipped by 12.7 per cent in the last quarter, compared to the corresponding quarter of the previous year. However, sanctions for the whole year are up but by less than the growth rate in the previous year.

The lower rate of growth in disbursals and advances for the year does not come as a surprise. ICICI has said, even in its last annual report, that their exposure to project finance would be reduced. The focus of the institution is slowly shifting away from project finance to structured products, fee-based income and retail finance. In 1997-98 itself the rate of growth in fee and commission based income was higher than the rate of growth in fund based income. The former grew by31 per cent, the latter by 40 per cent.