Citi India net up 6% at Rs 2,893 crore in FY14

The bank recorded a pre-tax profit growth of 11.4% to Rs 5,113 crore in FY14

Foreign lender Citi today reported a 6.4% rise in its post tax profit from country operations at Rs 2,893 crore in 2013-14 despite an improvement in key ratios.

The New York-headquartered Citi's domestic unit recorded a pre-tax profit growth of 11.4% to Rs 5,113 crore in FY14, it said in a statement.

Its chief executive for the country, Pramit Jhaveri, said retail bank earnings, ability to maintain profitability of institutional client business and growth in the commercial banking helped its performance during the fiscal.

The bank, one of the biggest foreign lenders in the country, is "well poised" to support clients' growth needs in the near future, he said.

The bank's assets were at Rs 1,44,981 crore as on March 31, 2014, on the back of a loan growth of 9% and deposit growth of 18% during the fiscal, it said, adding that the total assets including credit from offshore branches to Indian corporates stood at Rs 1,96,075 crore.

The share of the low-cost current and saving account deposits stood at 48% as on March 31, 2014.

On the asset quality front, it was able to improve its net non-performing assets ratio to 1.24% from the year ago's 1.47% even as a majority of the domestic lenders were saddled with the woes, the statement said.

Its cost to income ratio improved massively to 34%, down from the year ago's 40%.

Using the limited-period special facilities opened by the Reserve Bank for cementing the forex reserves, the bank garnered Rs 10,500 crore equivalent in fresh FCNR deposits from the diaspora under the RBI's concessional swap window.

It also raised equivalent of Rs 6,200 crore in capital under a special scheme announced by the RBI during the fiscal, the statement said, adding that its total capital adequacy as on March 31, 2014 had stood at 16.5%.

Citi hired 175 associates from premier business schools for its domestic and overseas operations in diverse functions like analytics, risk processing, transaction processing and technology services, it said.

It also upped its domestic head count and the total number of employees stands at 9,800 at present, the statement said, without giving details of the net number of people hired during the fiscal.

In the cards business, Citi said its market share by the spends stands at 17% of the average.