ING Vysya fourth quarter net rises 34% to Rs 91.3 cr

Private sector lender, ING Vysya Bank, on Wednesday posted a 34 per cent rise in net profit at Rs 91.3 crore for the quarter ended March, 2011, owing to high growth in fee-based income and a decline in the cost of provisioning. The bank reduced provisioning to just Rs 4.3 crore, a decline of 96 per cent compared to the year-ago period.

The bank’s total income rose 11 per cent to Rs 438.9 crore, compared with Rs 395 crore a year earlier. However, operating profit fell by about 20 per cent to Rs 143.2 crore on account of pension and gratuity outgo of Rs 36 crore.

Net interest income increased by 8.6 per cent to Rs 268.3 crore, compared with Rs 247.1 crore in the year-ago period, while the bank’s net interest margin stood at 3.3 per cent.

For the year ended March, 2011, the lender reported a 32 per cent rise in its net profit at Rs 318.7 crore. The bank’s total income registered a 17 per cent rise at Rs 1661.5 crore in the year ended March, 2011.“We have achieved our targets of high asset quality and better-than-market growth in the last financial year. Our advances grew 28 per cent, with a current CASA (current account savings account) growth of 24 per cent during this period,” said Shailendra Bhandari, managing director, ING Vysya Bank.

He said the bank’s asset quality had improved, with net non-performing assets of 0.39 per cent and a provision coverage ratio of 83 per cent during the period.

During the last financial year, the bank’s total deposits rose 17 per cent to Rs 30,194.3 crore and advances increased by 28 per cent to Rs 24,059 crore.

The share of CASA deposits in the bank’s overall deposits grew to 34.6 per cent from 32.6 per cent a year earlier.

“We expect our advances to grow more than the industry average in the current financial year,” said Jayant Mehrotra, chief financial officer, ING Vysya. He said the net interest margin may be restricted to 3.1-3.25 per cent in the current financial year. “We may consider raising funds through debt and equity in the current financial year. The amount would depend on the market condition,” Mehrotra said.