ICICI Bank net profit rises 44%

ICICI Bank has recorded 44% net profit which is below its forecast for its fourth quarter ended 31^st March 2011 as stronger credit demand and lower provisions for bad loans was offset by treasury losses.

New York-listed ICICI said net profit in January-March, its fourth quarter, rose to 14.52 billion rupees ($ 328 million) from 10.06 billion a year earlier but a Reuters poll of analysts had forecast net profit of 14.89 billion rupees.

Statistics:

• ICICI Bank, has posted a 17% jump in its consolidated net profit at Rs 1,568-crore for the March quarter, driven by growth in both interest and non-interest incomes.
• For the 12-month period ending March 31, 2011, its consolidated net profit surged 30% to Rs 6,093-crore.
• For the first time in two-years, the bank's retail loan-book grew and categories like car loan and home loans will be the "engines of growth" for the bank in the future, along with project finance.
• In Q4 FY 11, the bank's net interest income increased 23% over the year-ago period to Rs 2,510-crore while fee-income grew 18% at Rs 1,791-crore. Another factor contributing to the bottomline in Q4 was a 61% decline in provisions at Rs 384-crore.
• ICICI Bank achieved a loan growth of 19% for FY 11 which it expects to go up at par with the industry average at 20% for FY 12.
• It recorded an overall deposit growth of 26% during the year.
• The bank's net interest margin was at 2.7% for the quarter ended 31^st March.
• The composition of the cheaper CASA (current and savings account) in the total deposit base, which has a direct bearing on margins, improved to 45.1% from 41.7% earlier.
• The bank also reported an improvement on the asset quality front during the year with the net non-performing assets ratio going down to 0.94% from last year's 1.87%. Its provision coverage ratio improved to 76%, in line with the regulatory demands while the overall capital adequacy was at 19.54%.
• During FY 11, the bank's advances to domestic corporate went up by 25%, India-related advances in overseas branches were up 20% while the retail book also went up marginally.

Future plans:

On the retail front, ICICI Bank will continue to sell its unsecured offerings like credit cards in FY 12 which it restarted during Q4 after a pause during the slowdown and it will be sold to select categories like those having salary or savings accounts with the bank.