ICICI Bank Ltd, India’s second-biggest lender by assets, reported a 17 per cent rise in quarterly profit, beating estimates, helped by loan growth and higher fee income.
Net profit for its fiscal first quarter ended June rose to 26.55 billion rupees ($440 million) from 22.74 billion rupees a year earlier, the Mumbai-headquartered bank said on Thursday. Analysts on average had expected a net profit of 25.73 billion rupees.
Net non-performing loans as a percentage of loans were 0.99 per cent compared with 0.97 per cent in the previous quarter. Net interest income, the difference between interest earned and paid, grew 18 per cent annually to 44.92 billion rupees in the quarter.
The growth in profit is backed by sustained growth in business as well as our strong performing parameters.
“Our retail portfolio during the quarter grew by 26 per cent. As we have mentioned in past we have been calibrating our growth on the corporate side so our domestic corporate portfolio grew by about 8 per cent, our international portfolio grew by about 8 per cent in dollar terms and 10 per cent in rupee terms. All this has led to about 17 per cent growth in our domestic advances and 15 per cent growth in our overall advances,” said Chanda Kochhar, CEO and MD of ICICI Bank
“This loan growth was supported by a healthy growth in the deposit base. Our CASA (Current Account Savings Account) deposits also grew 15 per cent on y-o-y basis. During the quarter we added Rs. 3,603 crore to our savings account deposits and our CASA ratio was 43 per cent as on June 30,” she added.
Reflecting the strong funding franchise as well as the growth in business, out net interest income grew by 18 per cent on a y-o-y basis.
ICICI Bank is the largest private sector lender in India, where nearly two dozen state-run banks account for two-thirds of the assets. ICICI’s smaller rival HDFC Bank Ltd last week reported its slowest quarterly earnings growth in more than a decade.
