Johnson Cherian.
Private sector lender ICICI Bank reported 24% decline in its net profit to Rs 2058.2 crore for the quarter ended September 30 as compared to Rs 3102.3 crore in the year ago. The fall in profit in mainly due to absence of one time gain of Rs 5682 crore booked in the second quarter of the previous financial year on account of sale of stake in ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company. However, the bank has also made a one time gain of Rs 2012 crore during the June-Sep period of this financial year by selling stake in ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company.
Net interest income increased by 9% on a year-on-year basis to Rs 5,709 while net interest margin remained stable sequentially at 3.27% in Q2-2018, and increased by 14 basis points as compared to the year ago period. Fee income increased by 9% on a year-on-year basis to Rs 2,570 crore.
“We continue to maintain our focused approach to growth, in line with our objective of improving the portfolio mix,” said Chanda Kochhar, MD & CEO, ICICI Bank during the post earnings interaction with the media.
“Domestic loan portfolio grew by 12.4% on year on year basis, backed growth of 18.6% in the retail portfolio. This growth was strong across all products,” she said.
The bank reported improvement in asset quality with gross additions to non-performing assets were Rs 4674 crore as compared to Rs 4976 crore in Q1 of the current financial year and Rs 8029 crore in the same period of the previous year. The gross NPA ratio declined to 7.87% from 7.99% reported at the end of the June quarter.
Ms Kochhar said the report of Reserve Bank of India’s annual inspection report is still awaited, when asked on the divergence identified by regulator on the disclosure of bad loans. “For us the report generally comes in the third quarter,” she said. Some of the private sector that has announced their second quarter results disclosed significant divergence which impacted asset quality adversely.
“We expect additions to NPA in the current fiscal will be lower than the previous year,” Ms Kochhar said.
She also said the bank has exposure of about Rs 14,000 crore in 18 accounts in the second list that was prepared by the banking regulator for bankruptcy proceedings.
Going ahead, the bank expects 15% growth of domestic loans in the current financial year. Driven by 18-20% growth in retail loans
