After investing in mortgage lender HDFC earlier this year, the Chinese central bank has now emerged as one of the investors in ICICI Bank's Rs 15,000 crore capital raising plan, media outlet Business Today reported.

As per the report, the People's Bank of China signed a cheque of Rs 15 crore in the private bank under the qualified institutional placement (QIP).

It added that the Chinese bank was amongst the 357 institutional investors which included domestic mutual funds, insurance companies, and global institutions that subscribed to the issue. The other prominent investors in the fundraising were the Government of Singapore, Morgan Investment, and Societe Generale. These three investors were allotted more than 5 percent of the equity shares offered in the issue- Monetary Authority Of Singapore (11.08 percent), Morgan Stanley Investment Management (7.3 percent), and Societe Generale-OD (5.5 percent).

Meanwhile, domestic investors included HDFC Trustee, SBI Life, Govt Pension Fund Global, HDFC Life, Aditya Birla Sunlife, Bajaj Allianz, Nomura India, Franklin India Fund, and L&T MF Trustee among others.

The issue opened on August 10, 2020, and was closed on August 14, 2020.

"It makes good sense for the Chinese central bank, which is flush with funds, to diversify part of its war-chest in countries like India rather than stay invested in the US and Europe. US and China are already locked in a trade war which has now further escalated into their business areas. According to experts, the current investment by a Chinese bank in ICICI Bank doesn't pose any threat as banking is a highly regulated business," stated the report.

This investment in the banking sector comes close after the People's Bank of China increasing its stake in HDFC Ltd to over a percent in March this year. However, in the last three months, the People's Bank of China has reduced its stake below a percent in the HDFC Ltd as the shareholding pattern for June doesn't show it under the substantial one percent stake category, the report added.