ICICI Bank net up 29% to Rs 790 crore

BS 200 SCORECARD

ICICI Bank, the country's second largest bank, has reported 29 per cent jump in net profit to Rs 789.93 crore in the fourth quarter ended March 2006 from Rs 614.70 crore a year earlier, helped by 80 per cent increase in fee income.

The bank's total income was up 53.72 per cent to Rs 5,591.71 crore during January-March 2006 from Rs 3,637.54 crore a year ago.

Its fee income during the quarter stood at Rs 1,050 crore against Rs 585 crore a year earlier and net interest income was up 54 per cent to Rs 1,216 crore from Rs 790 crore in January-March 2005.

For the full year ended March 2006, the bank reported 27 per cent increase in net profit to Rs 2,540 crore from Rs 2,005 crore in the previous year.

Net interest income was up 48 per cent to Rs 4,187 crore compared with Rs 2,839 crore last year and fee income increased 55 per cent to Rs 3,259 crore from Rs 2,098 crore.

Kalpana Morparia, joint managing director of the bank, said the 55 per cent growth in fee income in 2005-06 was on top of a 60 per cent increase in 2004-05.

The sharp rise in net profit was despite higher general provisioning on standard loans, following increase in the provisioning to 0.40 per cent from 0.25 per cent.