ICICI Bank posts marginal rise in Q1 profit;shares down 1.11%

Country's largest private sector lender ICICI Bank today reported a marginal 3 per cent rise in consolidated profit for the April-June period as profit from its general insurance subsidiary declined.
Stand-alone net profit, however, grew 17 per cent to Rs 2,655 crore for the three months to June, boosted by a surge in retail loans.
The profit from its general insurance subsidiary fell to Rs 72 crore in the period under review from Rs 203 crore in the comparable three months.
The bank's core net interest income grew 18 per cent to Rs 4,492 crore, largely on the back of a 26 per cent surge in the retail advances.

Home loans grew at 25 per cent, while auto loans were up by 46 per cent, ICICI Bank Managing Director and Chief Executive Chanda Kochhar told reporters on a conference call.
On the corporate advances front, the bank continued its cautious stance and the book was up by only 8 per cent, she said, adding project loan requirements are at least two quarters away given the way the economy is recovering.

Its total provisions shot up 22.42 per cent to Rs 726 crore, which included Rs 55 crore towards provisions for unhedged foreign currency exposures of its corporate borrowers, she said.

On the asset quality front, there was a jump in the restructured loans at Rs 1,394 crore as against Rs 1,000 crore in the year-ago period, while there was a minor jump in addition to gross non-performing assets at Rs 1,195 crore as against Rs 1,116 crore a year ago.
In percentage terms, the bank's gross non-performing assets ratio narrowed to 3.05 percent from 3.23 percent a year ago.
Kochhar, however, sounded satisfied with the asset quality management, saying the addition to gross bad loans and restructured advances will be lower in the current fiscal as against FY 2014.
The bank wrote off Rs 400 crore of advances during the reporting quarter, while cash recoveries stood at Rs 400 crore.

Commenting on the numbers, brokerage firm Emkay Global said the results are in in line with its expectations, though net profit is a tad higher than the consensus of Rs 2,600 crore.
The bank was able to expand its net interest margin to 3.40 percent from 3.27 percent, and Kochhar exuded confidence of maintaining it at 3.3-3.4 percent for the fiscal.
The share of the low-cost current and savings account deposits stood at 43 percent at end June.
ICICI Bank shares closed at Rs 1,473, down 1.11 per cent on the BSE.