Stable loan growth and higher margins helped ICICI Bank report a 21 per cent increase in net profit at Rs 2,304 crore in the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2013.
The country’s largest private sector lender had reported a net profit of Rs 1,902 crore in the year-ago quarter.
Net interest income (difference between interest earned and expended) increased 22 per cent to Rs 3,803 crore (Rs 3,105 crore in Q4 FY12). Other income fell marginally to Rs 2,208 crore on the back of muted fee income and lower dividend.
During the quarter net interest margin (NIM) was at 3.3 per cent.
Provisions during the quarter remained almost flat at Rs 460 crore (Rs 469 crore in the year-ago quarter). Sequentially, however, provisions increased from Rs 369 crore in the December-quarter.
For the full year ended March 31, 2013, net profit increased 29 per cent to Rs 8,325 crore from Rs 6,465 crore in FY12.
As on end-March, the total loan book grew 14 per cent to 2.90-lakh crore from Rs 2.53-lakh crore in FY12.
“Retail lending, which accounts for 37 per cent of total loans, rose by 25 per cent……Revival in corporate loan growth will take another six months. Currently, greater demand is coming from working capital loans,” said Chanda Kochhar, Managing Director and CEO, ICICI Bank. “Deposit growth rate will continue to remain under pressure,” she added.
NIM stood at 3.11 per cent for the full year ended March FY13 (from 2.73 per cent in FY12).
“We will work towards improving NIM by 10 basis points,” Kochhar said.
The bank’s net non-performing asset ratio was 0.64 per cent as on March 31, 2013, from 0.62 per cent as on March 31 last year.
The board proposed a dividend of Rs 20 per share to the shareholders. It was at Rs 16.5 per share last year. The bank’s scrip ended 2.82 per cent lower at Rs 1,144.30 per share on the Bombay Stock Exchange.
Cobrapost allegations
The bank found no evidence of money laundering as claimed by online magazine Cobrapost.
The magazine had charged ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Axis Bank with money-laundering activities and know-your-customer (KYC) norm violations.
Following the allegations, the bank conducted an internal investigation and also engaged external agency (Deloitte) to investigate 14 branches.
“No actual instances of money laundering have been found in the transactions as mentioned (by Cobrapost),” Kochhar said.
“However, there have been errors in KYC documentation and we will be looking at improving it,” she added. Pending enquiry, the bank has suspended 18 employees following the allegations.