Axis Bank Q3 results: Net profit falls 36% to Rs 1,117 cr on higher provisioning; NII rises 14%

NEW DELHI: Axis Bank on Wednesday reported a 36 per cent YoY drop in net profit at Rs 1,117 crore for December quarter, hurt by higher provisioning. The private lender had reported a profit of Rs 1,757 crore in the corresponding quarter last year.

In a filing to the BSE, the bank said its profit was adversely impacted by nearly Rs 1,050 crore on account of prudent expense and provisioning charges in the December quarter.

Net Interest Income (NII) for the quarter rose 14 per cent to Rs 7,373 crore from Rs 6,453 crore in the year-ago quarter. Net interest margin (NIM) for the quarter rose to 3.59 per cent compared with 3.57 per cent in the year-ago quarter.


The bank said that specific loan loss provisions for the December quarter stood at Rs 1,053 crore compared with Rs 2,962 crore in the December quarter of last year.

Axis Bank said that it has made provisions on 90+ DPD (days past dues) accounts not classified as NPA, pursuant to the Supreme Court judgment, at rates that would have applied to these accounts per extant provisioning rules for NPA in the Banks, amounting to Rs 3,899 crore during the quarter.

"The bank holds cumulative provisions (standard + additional other than NPA) of Rs 11,856 crore at the end of Q3FY21. It is pertinent to note that this is over and above the NPA provisioning included in our PCR calculations. These cumulative provisions translate to a standard asset coverage of 2.08 per cent as on December 31. On an aggregated basis, our provision coverage ratio stands at 116 per cent," the bank said.

Gross NPA for the quarter stood at 3.44 per cent, which was less than 4.18 per cent in September quarter and 5 per cent in the year-ago quarter. If the bank had classified certain borrower accounts as NPA after August 31, the bank's gross NPA would have been 4.55 per cent, Axis Bank said.

Overall, provisions and contingencies for the quarter stood at Rs 4,604.28, which was higher than Rs 4,580.65 crore that it reported in the September quarter and Rs 3,470.92 crore in the year-ago quarter.