ICICI Bank Q4 net at Rs 1902 crore, up 31% YoY

ICICI Bank, India's No. 2 lender, reported a better-than-expected 31.1 per cent rise in quarterly profit, bolstered by higher income from non-core operations and strong loan growth.

Demand for loans in India is expected to pick up after the central bank last week cut its benchmark lending rate for the first time in three years to help revive sagging economic growth.

Net profit rose to Rs 1902 crore ($362 million) in the fiscal fourth quarter ended March from Rs 1452 crore reported a year earlier, while net interest income increased nearly 24 per cent to Rs 3105 crore.

Other income, which includes gains from treasury and fees, rose nearly 36 per cent to Rs 2230 crore, said the bank, which is also listed in New York and competes with State Bank of India and HDFC Bank.


The bank's loans grew 17 per cent to nearly $50 billion, it said. Net interest margin, a key gauge of profitability for a bank, rose to 3.01 per cent from 2.74 per cent a year ago.

Provisions, including for bad loans, rose more than a fifth to Rs 4.7 billion from Rs 3.8 billion a year earlier, while net non-performing loans dropped to 0.73 per cent of total assets from 1.11 per cent, the bank said on Friday.

Consolidated profit grew 15 per cent to Rs 18.1 billion, the bank said.

At 1:35 p.m. (0805 GMT), shares of the bank, valued by the market at $18.5 billion, were up 3.3 per cent at Rs 869.1 in a Mumbai market that was down 0.2 per cent.

Last week HDFC Bank reported the customary 30% rise in quarterly profits for March, helped by a jump in profits from corporate lending and a fall in provisioning for bad loans. It forecast a jump in demand for loans this fiscal as companies revive capital investments.

The bank said it will cut deposit rates in the next few weeks following the central bank's rate cut despite its strongest pillar - the proportion of the so-called low-cost CASA (current account savings account) deposits to the total - falling marginally.

The bank, said net profit rose to 1,453 crore in the March quarter, from 1,114.7 crore a year earlier. Net interest income - interest earned less interest expended - for the quarter rose 19.3% to 3,388.3 crore against 2,839.5 crore in the previous comparable quarter.