PremiumICICI Bank today reported a 261% jump in its March quarter consolidated net profit at ₹4,403 crore, as against ₹1,221 crore in the year-ago period.
Core operating profit grew by 17% year-on-year to ₹ 31,351 crore (US$ 4.3 billion) in the year ended March 31, 2021 (FY2021) Profit after tax grew by 104% year-on-year to ₹16,193 crore(US$ 2.2 billion) in FY2021 compared to ₹7,931 crore (US$ 1.1 billion) in the year ended March 31, 2020 (FY2020).
Premium Premium 
Premium Premium The net interest margin was 3.84% in Q4-2021 compared to 3.67% in the quarter ended December 31, 2020 (Q3-2021) and 3.87% in Q4-2020.
“We will calibrate our growth in the near term based on the operating environment and conditions resulting from the second wave of the Covid pandemic," its executive director Sandeep Batra told reporters on a conference call after the announcement of the results.
He said there is bound to be “some kind of a slowdown" wherever there is a local lockdown, but added that the bank is comfortable with the kind of book it has built and believes that the over ₹7,500 crore in dedicated COVID provisions it carries into the new fiscal are enough to take care of possible reverses.
Income, on a consolidated basis, rose to ₹43,621 crore in January-March 2021 from ₹40,121 crore in the year-ago quarter.
The bank's core net interest income increased 17 per cent to ₹10,431 crore on an 18 per cent growth in domestic advances and a marginal decline in net interest margin to 3.84 per cent from the year ago's 3.87 per cent.
The non-interest income grew marginally at ₹4,137 crore during the reporting quarter, after a 6 per cent growth in fee income, while there was a ₹25 crore loss on treasury income because of the hardening of yields during the quarter.
Premium Premium From a provisions perspective, the bank set aside a total of ₹2,883 crore during the reporting quarter, which included ₹1,000 crore devoted to the COVID provisioning.
Batra said during the reporting quarter, it drew down over ₹3,500 crore from the COVID provisions done earlier, possibly because of the Supreme Court order on recognizing bad assets, and added another ₹1,000 crore to close the book at ₹7,500 crore.
On the asset quality front, fresh slippages came at ₹5,523 crore, taking the overall gross non-performing assets ratio to 4.96 per cent as against 4.38 per cent in December.
Over ₹4,000 crore of the fresh slippages were in the retail segment, which occupies 67 per cent of the overall book.
It has restructured 1,624 loan accounts entailing a loan exposure of ₹1,976 crore and taken a provision hit of ₹314 crore under the head.
Batra said corporates and small businesses have grown resilience over the past year by focusing on digital, and answered a question of retail borrower's resilience saying the bank will continue to lend to the better-rated borrowers, as it has been doing even during the worst of the times.
Refusing to share any targets or guidance on the future, Batra maintained that “risk calibration" will be the centerpiece for the bank as it wades through the current period, but affirmed commitment to deliver “consistent and predictable" returns to the shareholders.
He also said that the book built by the lender is “best in class".
The Board at the above Meeting also recommended a dividend of~ 2/- (Rupees Two Only) per equity share of face value of ~ 2/- each, subject to requisite approvals.
Fund raising by way of issuances of debt securities including by way ofnon-convertible debentures in domestic markets upto an overall limit of~ 200.00 billion by way of private placement and issuances of bonds/notes/offshore certificate of deposits in overseas markets upto USD 1.50 billion in single/multiple tranches for a period of one year, from the date of passing of resolution by the Board.
Click here to read the Mint ePaperMint is now on Telegram. Join Mint channel in your Telegram and stay updated with the latest business news.
