IndusInd Bank Q2 profit rises 51%

Driven by strong growth in fee income, private lender IndusInd Bank today reported a 51 per cent surge in net profit for the second quarter ended September 2008 at Rs 33.66 crore compared with Rs 22.34 crore during the same period last year. The bank’s Managing Director and CEO, Romesh Sobti said the bank aims to reduce its dependence on bulk deposits and enhance its current account and savings account (CASA) base to 20 per cent from 18 per cent at present.

The bank’s core fee income rose to Rs 89.67 crore during the quarter, recording 53 per cent growth against Rs 58.47 crore during the corresponding quarter a year ago. During the quarter, the net interest income for the bank rose 37 per cent to Rs 105.24 crore. As on September 30, 2008, the total advances of the bank were at Rs 14,049.50 crore and total deposits were at Rs 19,487.91 crore.

“The retail orientation has gathered momentum now and we aim to grow our CASA rather than rolling over bulk deposits. We found that growing the savings account base is easier, as compared to current accounts that are volatile in nature” said Sobti.

For the quarter ended September 2008, the bank’s net non-performing assets (NPAs) stood at Rs 310.64 crore or 2.21 per cent. Sobti said the bank aims to bring down its net NPAs by at least 80 basis points during the thrid quarter. The net interest margin (NIM) of the bank improved to 1.84 per cent during the second quarter as against 1.59 per cent in the same period of the previous year.

The bank also managed to improve its capital adequacy ratio to 12.45 per cent during the July-September quarter compared with 11.77 per cent for the same period last year.

For the half year ended September 2008, the bank’s net profit rose by 48 per cent to Rs 52.76 crore.