As ICICI goes about its task of becoming a force to reckon with in the retail finance space, it's crossing swords with a company it once founded-HDFC.

By Brian Carvalho & Ranju Sarkar

KUNDAPUR  VAMAN KAMATH Chairman, ICICI Bank (left) DEEPAK KANTILAL PAREKH Executive Chairman, HDFC

Last fortnight, Deepak Kantilal Parekh, executive chairman of Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC), added another feather to his already-chock-full cap: he put subsidiary company, HDFC Bank, on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) by offering investors $150 million worth of American Depository Shares. Parekh has ample reason to feel on top of the world; after all, his is only the second Asian bank (outside Japan) to be listed on the NYSE. Which, then, was the first? Well, no prizes for guessing-it has to be ICICI Bank, right?

Right indeed. Last March, it was Kundapur Vaman Kamath, chairman of ICICI Bank, who was ringing the bell at the NYSE. That in fact was the second time in six months he was doing the honours. For, in September, 1999, he took flagship ICICI to the bourse in the Big Apple. Now, with Parekh following suit (there was no bell to be rung this time, though), HDFC is on level terms. There's not much to choose between the offerings of both banks either: ICICI's pricing was $11 for two underlying shares, which translated into a rupee price of 250. HDFC's offer was at $13.83 for three underlying shares, working out to Rs 219.

Of course, the ICICI top brass would like to believe that they did it first.

Parekh and Kamath will dismiss such traces of this two-horse race as hype, or imagination, but they wouldn't deny that there's a contest on (although they would tell you that there are many other horses in the fray). ''The competition between HDFC and ICICI has increased, but it is still far less severe than the competition between ICICI and IDBI, or SBI and ICICI,'' is how Parekh puts it. Let's at the outset clarify that this isn't a personal duel between the two CEOs, but in their quest to become the country's premier one-stop financial services supermarket-offering consumers everything from home loans to mutual funds to insurance to online broking-ICICI and HDFC are running neck and neck. Inevitably, in that quest to race ahead, they often tread on each other's toes.

Don't believe us? Read on. For some time, HDFC has been organising real estate exhibitions across the country. These provide a platform for developers to peddle their projects to customers, the latter get a choice of properties, and for HDFC it's an opportunity to sell home loans. But last year, when the housing finance major organised an exhibition in Delhi at one of the city's hotels, it had visitors who weren't exactly welcome-the direct selling agents (DSAs) of ICICI had erected tents on the hotel's lawns to solicit the same customers! Chaos prevailed but the long and short of the story is that the DSAs were persuaded to go back (we aren't sure how many customers chose to do the same). Sounds like a war straight from the Coke-Pepsi books? ''It hasn't yet reached those proportions, but some day it will,'' avers S.H. Bhojani, a former ICICI hand, now Partner, Amarchand Mangaldas.

The Generals' Top Warriors
ICICI's A-Team	HDFC's A-Team
NACHIKET Mor, Exe. Director, ICICI Bank Currently executive director at ICICI Bank, Nachiket Mor is widely perceived in industry circles as being groomed to take over the reins at ICICI.	K.M.MISTRY, MD, HDFC The Managing Director says that earlier he had to set his own benchmarks. Today, there's competition in the shape of ICICI and foreign banks.
MADHAVI PURI-BUCH, ICICI Home Finance & ICICI Direct Spearheading the growth thrust of ICICI Home Finance, Puri-Buch believes that the market for home loans is "huge and growing. HDFC and ICICI don't need to trample on each other."	ADITYA PURI, MD, HDFC Bank The head of HDFC Bank is a key member of the team that's been nurtured by the chairman. "He's a great leader who can make people buy into his strategy and execute it", says Puri of Parekh.
RENUKA RAMNATH, MD, ICICI Venture After investment banking, corporate finance and syndicate deals, Ramnath set up ICICI's e-commerce group, and today heads the private equity firm, ICICI Venture.	DEEPAK SATWALEKAR, MD, HDFC Standard Life At one point in time, Satwalekar, then No.2 to Parekh at HDFC,was considered the logical successor. Today, however, he's been given a fresh challenge, as head of the insurance venture.
CHANDA KOCHHAR, Exe. Director, ICICI Bank For Kochhar, Head, ICICI Bank (Retail Operations), achieving leadership status is vital. "That will give us the clout", she says, pointing to ICICI's auto loans business as a classic example.	MILIND BARVE, MD, HDFC Asset Management Although HDFC took the plunge into mutual funds only last year, it's already become the fastest growing fund with Barve at the helm. He leveraged the HDFC Bank network for distribution
KALPANA MORPARIA, Exe. Director, ICICI Morparia predicts that in 4-5 years retail finance will make up 25-30 per cent of ICICI's business. She's also aiming to bring down the net non-performing loans ratio to under 5 per cent this year.	GIRISH BHAGAT, MD, HDFC Securities Bhagat heads HDFC Securities, the e-broking arm of the group. His goal is to provide HDFC consumers seamless services in a bid to cater to all their trading needs.

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