A healthy uptick in core income and a reduction in loan losses boosted the net profit of the third largest private lender Axis Bank by 19 per cent to Rs 1,916 crore for the three months to September.
The Ahmedabad-headquartered bank today said its net interest income grew 15 per cent to Rs 4,062 crore, boosted by a 23 per cent growth in advances and a dip in cost of funds, while the other income rose by 5 per cent to Rs 2,041 crore in the second quarter ended September 30.
Executive Director and Chief Financial Officer S K Gupta said even though the fee income rose by 19 per cent, a hit in the trading income, which came down to Rs 168 crore from Rs 217 crore, adversely affected the other income side.
Net interest margin declined to 3.85 per cent on base rate cuts, from 3.97 per cent, but was up from the June quarter when it stood at 3.81 per cent.
V Srinivasan, who was promoted recently as Deputy Managing Director, said the margins are unlikely to change much, going forward as a result of more rate cuts by the RBI. He maintained that the NIMs will continue to remain above 3.50 per cent target band announced earlier.
Fresh slippages almost halved to Rs 583 crore in the second quarter from Rs 1,185 crore in the first quarter, of which only Rs 90 crore were from restructured book that stood at Rs 8,426 crore, Gupta said, adding this helped reduce overall provisions to Rs 707 crore from Rs 725 crore a year ago, despite growth in the loan book.
The gross non-performing assets ratio was stable at 1.38 per cent and the bank also maintained its guidance of having lower incidence of loan losses this fiscal.
On loan demand, Srinivasan expects the investment demand to come up by end of the fiscal or early next fiscal.
The corporate segment accounts for 47 per cent of the loan book, while 13 per cent is from small businesses and the remaining 40 per cent is retail, Gupta said.
The retail book grew faster at 27 per cent, and within that, the mortgage book expanded 22 per cent, he said.
During the second quarter, the bank opened 154 branches to take the overall network to 2,743, and Gupta added it plans to open up to 300 more by the end of the fiscal year.
The bank may go in for an American depository receipts (ADR) issue to give investors more options, Gupta said, adding in April the board had given nod for an ADR issue.
"Results for Axis Bank came largely in line with our estimates. We retain our positive stance on the bank," Saday Sinha, an analyst at the brokerage Kotak Securities, said.
The bank scrip ended flat with a positive bias at Rs 521.30 apiece on the BSE.
