Core income perks up Yes Bank net 28%; eyes MF buyout

Private sector player Yes Bank, which today reported 27.7 per cent growth in net profit at Rs 551.2 crore on higher core income in the June quarter, said it is looking at entering the mutual fund business possibly through an acquisition.
Its core net interest income during the first quarter of 2015-16 rose 42.2 per cent to Rs 1,060 crore, while non- interest income moved up 32 per cent to Rs 413.6 crore.
The bank's net profit during the April-June quarter of the previous fiscal was Rs 431.54 crore. Its total income also increased to Rs 3,797.02 crore, as against Rs 3,093.19 crore in the year-ago period.

Yes Bank's Chief Financial Officer Rajat Monga said a dip of over 0.50 per cent in the cost of funds year-on-year and an increase in the share of the low cost CASA deposits to 23.4 per cent, helped the bank net in a 0.30 per cent improvement in the net interest margin to 3.30 per cent.
He also hinted that the bank is entering the mutual fund fray with an acquisition.
"We are open to both (buying and starting up our own). If we don't succeed in an acquisition in the AMC space, we will have to do one by ourselves. But we have no dialogue which is approaching a deadline or approaching a decision," he said.

When asked if the bank has applied for starting the MF business, Monga said it has the board's approval and the "licence is under application". He refused to elaborate.

The 12-year-old bank has grown to have a presence in a majority of businesses on the lending side and allied ones, but lacks a presence in the MF and insurance businesses unlike a majority of its peers, thereby limiting its fee-based income.
However, Monga was quick to add that the MF business is not so profitable and majority of the small-sized AMCs are not making lots of money. He also said the bank is not in talks to take over beleaguered Sahara group's AMC.

Like its peers, Yes Bank also saw its gross bad loans inching up to 0.46 per cent from 0.33 but he Monga claimed that asset quality is stable and slippages have come in from the SME and retail fronts.