Subsidiaries and expenditure checks boost bottom line.
ICICI Bank reported a 31 per cent increase in consolidated net profit to Rs 4,670 crore in 2009-10 from Rs 3,577 crore during 2008-09, with most subsidiaries pitching in with good numbers. ICICI Life reported accounting profitability for the first time since inception, with a profit after tax (PAT) of Rs 258 crore in 2009-10.
For the March quarter, standalone profits increased 35 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y) to Rs 1,006 crore, aided by higher fee income, lower operating expenses (down 16 per cent y-o-y) and lower absolute provisioning. A tight cap on operating expenses (down 11 per cent y-o-y), near-tripling of treasury income and lower provisioning for tax boosted the bottom line.
For 2009-10, net interest income (NII) dipped 3 per cent y-o-y to Rs 8,114 crore, as the balance sheet continued to contract due to repayments from retail and international loan books.
Total deposits slipped 7.5 per cent y-o-y (up 2 per cent sequentially) and advances slipped 17 per cent (up 1 per cent sequentially) due to repayments from the retail and overseas branches loan portfolio during the recently-concluded quarter. Other operational parameters like current and saving account (Casa) have steadily improved to 41.7 per cent this year (28.7 per cent in the March quarter), helped by 7.6 per cent growth in Casa deposits.
Higher coverage (up 830 basis points to 59.5 per cent) has seen net non-performing assets (NPAs) shrink sequentially to 2.12 per cent from 2.43 per cent. It has received a six-month extension (up to March 2011) from the central bank to raise the provisioning coverage to the 70 per cent level.
Going ahead, ICICI Bank has a very comfortable buffer for growth with a capital adequacy ratio of 19.4 per cent and a Tier-I ratio of 14 per cent. It is also poised to accelerate its growth in advances.
The stock tumbled from the pre-result levels on Rs 975 on April 23 to Rs 946 on Tuesday and trades at a price to book valuation of over 2x consensus analyst estimates of FY11 book value per share.
With contributions from Priya Kansara Pandya & Sunaina Vasudev
