ICICI Bank Q4 net profit surges by 59% to Rs 7,019 cr

The bank had earned a profit of Rs 4,403 crore in the corresponding January-March quarter of the last year

ICICI Bank on Saturday reported a 58 per cent jump in its March quarter consolidated net to Rs 7,719 crore, helped by a sharp decrease in the money set aside for bad debts.

On a standalone basis, the second largest private sector lender reported a 59 per cent jump to Rs 7,019 crore for the January-March quarter of 2021-22. It ended the fiscal year FY22 with a 44 per cent growth in the bottomline at Rs 23,339 crore. The total income of the bank on a standalone basis rose to Rs 27,412 crore in the January-March period from Rs 23,953 crore in the year-ago quarter, ICICI Bank said in a regulatory filing.

Its core net interest income grew 21 per cent during the quarter at Rs 12,605 crore on the back of an over 17 per cent increase in advances and a widening of the net interest margin to 4 per cent as against 3.84 per cent in the year-ago period.

The non-interest income excluding treasury income grew 11 per cent to Rs 4,608 crore, while the treasury operations reported gains of Rs 129 crore as against a loss of Rs 25 crore in the year-ago period. The gross non-performing assets ratio improved sharply to 3.60 per cent as of March 31, 2022, from 4.96 per cent in the year-ago period, which resulted in a decline in the amount of money to be set aside as provisions and contingencies.

The recoveries and upgrades increased to Rs 4,693 crore from the over Rs 4,200 crore level in the quarter-ago period, while the gross NPAs written off came at Rs 2,644 crore. The overall provisions stood at Rs 1,068 crore, which were down from the Rs 2,883 crore, and included Rs 1,025 crore as prudential provisioning over and above the Rs 6,425 crore in Covid-related provisions already carried by the bank.

The bank's executive director Sandeep Batra told reporters that the prudent provisioning has been made because of the impact of inflation triggered by current geopolitical events on ICICI Bank's borrowers, but declined to specify the quantum of its Rs 8.59 lakh crore loanbook exposed to such vagaries. From a loan growth perspective, retail had a 20 per cent growth in FY22 and now accounts for 44 per cent of the overall pie, while wholesale loans grew 10 per cent.

Lending to small businesses having a turnover of up to Rs 250 crore jumped 34 per cent. Batra said the bank has defined guard rails for all the loan segments and will continue with its lending activities as per the set paramters. He said the bank does not chase asset growth.

To a question on how it plans to tackle the gap with larger peer HDFC Bank, which will grow wider with the largest private sector lender merging parent HDFC with itself, Batra said ICICI Bank is focused on growing organically and will not be looking at any acquisitions, beyond portfolio buys. The bank's head of wholesale lending Vishakha Mulye has quit, and will be replaced by Anup Bagchi, who presently handles retail business, Batra said, adding that current chief financial officer Rakesh Jha will replace Bagchi.

The bank has appointed Anindya Banerjee as Jha's replacement, as per a statement. Among the group companies, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance reported a 190 per cent jump in its March quarter net at Rs 185 crore, while ICICI Lombard General Insurance's bottomline decreased to Rs 313 crore from Rs 346 crore in the year-ago period. ICICI Securities and ICICI Prudential Asset Management Company reported a broadly flat net at Rs 340 crore and Rs 357 crore, respectively, in the quarter.

The ICICI Bank scrip had closed 1.95 per cent down at Rs 747.35 a piece on the BSE on Friday, as against a correction of 1.23 per cent.

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