Mumbai: Close on the heels of raising $5 billion through a public offer, country''s largest private lender ICICI Bank has mandated ten international banks to arrange a Japanese yen equivalent loan of $1.5 billion (about Rs6,100 crore).

The funding, the biggest-ever offshore syndicated loan facility by an Indian financial institution, would be used for general corporate purposes.

The ten banks mandated for the funding include BNP Paribas, Galyon, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, Standard Chartered Bank and Sumitomo Mitsui, sources said.

The debt raising exercise follows the bank''s follow-on public offer in domestic and international markets in June this year. ICICI Bank had raised about Rs10,000 crore from the domestic market through issue of equity shares, and an equivalent amount through a secondary offering of American depository shares in the US.