IDFC Bank to be operational by October next year

Infrastructure finance company IDFC, which recently bagged a commercial banking licence, plans to start bank operations by October next year.

"It (IDFC Bank) should be operational by October 2015," IDFC Chairman Rajiv Lall told PTI.

IDFC and Bandhan emerged successful out of about 25 contenders for new bank licences issued by the RBI in April.

Earlier this month, IDFC decided to come out with a follow-on public offer so as to bring down foreign shareholding in the company below 50%.

As per the existing regulations, the bank has to be floated by a domestic entity.

Presently, foreign ownership is about 53% which makes IDFC a foreign entity. Therefore, it needs to pare foreign investor holding.

The company plans to come out with follow-on public offer or preferential offer by October this year.

Meanwhile, IDFC recorded 51% drop in net profit at Rs 257.94 crore in the fourth quarter ended March 31.

The group's consolidated net profit was Rs 525.70 crore in the January-March quarter of the 2012-13 fiscal.

Total income rose marginally to Rs 2,219.57 crore during the fourth quarter, from Rs 2,218.41 crore in the same quarter last fiscal.

For the full 2013-14 fiscal, IDFC posted a 1.82% drop in net profit at Rs 1,802.68 crore, from Rs 1,836.20 in 2012-13.

Total income last fiscal increased to Rs 8,789.99 crore in 2013-14, from Rs 8,148.42 crore in the previous year.

On a standalone basis, net profit more than halved to Rs 213.04 crore during the January-March quarter of 2013-14 as against Rs 451.04 crore in the year-ago period.

For the entire fiscal, standalone net profit fell 3.62% to Rs 1,701.12 crore, as compared to Rs 1,764.98 crore for the year ended March 31, 2013.