Bandhan Bank March quarter profit rises 20% YoY to Rs 3.87 billion

Private lender Bandhan Bank on Friday reported a 20.3 per cent rise in net profit at Rs 3.88 billion for the last quarter of 2017-18 fiscal on the back of healthy interest as well as non-interest income.

The bank had registered a net profit of Rs 3.22 billion in the January-March quarter of 2016-17 fiscal.

The net interest income (NII) for the quarter grew by 25.2 per cent to Rs 8.63 billion as against Rs 6.89 billion in the same quarter year earlier. Non-interest income jumped by 57.4 per cent to Rs 2.03 billion as against Rs 1.29 billion, the bank said in a regulatory filing.

Total income in the January-March period of 2017-18 increased to Rs 15.53 billion, up by 29 per cent from Rs 12.07 billion in same quarter of 2016-17.

For the entire 2017-18 fiscal, the net profit grew by 21 per cent to Rs 13.46 billion against Rs 11.12 billion in 2016-17.

Interest income stood at Rs 30.32 billion for the year, up 26.1 per cent. Non-interest income shot up by 71.8 per cent to Rs 7.06 billion.

Total income during the fiscal rose to Rs 55.08 billion, as against Rs 43.20 billion in preceding fiscal.

On the asset front, there was an uptick in bad loans with gross non-performing assets (NPAs) rising to 1.25 per cent of the gross advances as on March 31, 2018 as against 0.51 per cent by same time year earlier.

In absolute value, the gross NPAs were Rs 3.73 billion, compared with Rs 862.6 million.

Net NPAs increased to 0.58 per cent (Rs 1.72 billion) of the net advances by end of March 2018, versus 0.36 per cent (Rs 61.17 crore).

The Board of Directors at their meeting held on Friday recommended a dividend of Re 1 per equity share out of the net profits for the year ended March 31, 2018, subject to approval of the shareholders, the bank said.

Commenting on the performance, Chandra Shekhar Ghosh, Managing Director and CEOof Bandhan Bank said: "The year 2017-18 has been a watershed year for the bank. We had successful initial public offering (lPO) which was subscribed 14.6 times. We will continue to strive to maintain the quality of assets, growth in assets and profitability."

During the year ended March 31, 2018, the bank successfully raised capital of Rs 36.62 billion through initial public offer by issuing 97,663,910 equity shares, Bandhan Bank said.

Shares of the bank traded 3.86 per cent higher at Rs 513.90 on BSE.