ICICI Bank Q2 net profit dips 55 % to Rs nine billion, NPAs rise

Private lender ICICI Bank saw its net profit for the September quarter dip more than half over the year-ago quarter.
Net profit for the quarter stood at Rs 9.09 billion against Rs 20.58 billion a year ago, said the bank in a stock exchange filing.

The bank had reported its first-ever loss amounting to Rs 1.2 billion for the previous June quarter (Q1). The June-September quarter saw the bank embroiled in leadership problems as Chanda Kochhar had gone on leave in June facing conflict of interest allegations. This was the bank's first quarter under Sandeep Bakhshi's leadership who stepped in as interim CEO in June and appointed as MD & CEO in October, as Kochhar stepped down.
Net interest income (NII) rose 11 per cent to Rs 64.18 billion in September 2018 against Rs 57.09 billion in the year-ago quarter.
Other income was flat at Rs 31.91 billion for the quarter ended September. While fee income grew by 17 per cent, treasury loss of Rs 350 million against a profit of Rs 20.12 billion in the year-ago quarter accounted to the muted growth in other income.
The gross non-performing asset (GNPA) ratio for the quarter stood at 8.54 per cent, up by 67 basis points over 7.87 per cent in the year-ago quarter. However, it was lower over the previous quarter’s GNPA ratio of 8.81 per cent.
Provisions and contingencies fell both annually and sequentially. The provisions for the September quarter stood at nearly Rs 40 billion against Rs 45 billion a year ago and nearly Rs 60 billion in previous June quarter.
The bank provided for Rs 4.09 billion towards NPA provisioning and Rs 3.45 billion towards investments provisioning while 1.17 billion was standard provisioning.
The provision coverage ratio on non-performing loans, including cumulative technical/prudential write-offs stood at 69.4 per cent at September 30, 2018, up significantly on both annual and sequential basis.
Net Interest Margin (NIM) stood at 3.33 per cent on September 2018, marginal improvement over 3.27 per cent in the previous year’s September quarter. This was against NIM of 3.19 per cent in June quarter.
CASA (Current Accounts- Savings Accounts) Ratio was stable at 50.8 per cent against 50.5 per cent in June quarter and 49.5 per cent in the year-ago quarter.
Advances grew by 13 per cent to Rs 5444 billion in September 2018, while deposits grew at 12 per cent to Rs 5586 billion.
The bank’s stock closed at Rs 315.05 on BSE, down by 1.45 per cent from the previous close. Results came out post market hours.