ICICI Bank Q4 net up 15% at Rs 2,652cr; 35% jump in fee income

ICICI Bank today posted 15 per cent growth in standalone net profit at Rs 2,652 crore for the fourth quarter of last fiscal on a healthy rise in non- interest income, but asset quality limited the bottomline growth of India's largest private lender.
On a consolidated basis, net profit grew 9 per cent to Rs 2,724 crore in Q4, 2013-14. For the entire fiscal, the profit expanded 15 per cent to Rs 11,041 crore.
The core net interest income in Q4 grew 15 per cent to Rs 4,357 crore, while the non-interest income was up 35 per cent to Rs 2,976 crore, ICICI Bank Managing Director and CEO Chanda Kochhar said in the results conference call.

Under the other income head, fee income grew 12 per cent to Rs 1,974 crore; treasury income stood at Rs 245 crore; dividend from subsidiaries was Rs 541 crore, while exchange rate gains on repatriation of retained earnings from overseas branches helped with Rs 222 crore.
The gross non-performing assets ratio was flat on a sequential basis at 3.03 per cent, even though it had fresh slippages of Rs 1,241 crore. Recovery of Rs 400 crore helped the bank maintain the NPA numbers flat.
The bank wrote off Rs 700 crore of bad assets during Q4, 2013-14, Kochhar said.

The bank added Rs 2,156 crore to its restructured assets, taking the total recast book to Rs 10,558 crore, she said, adding that it has a pipeline of another Rs 1,500 crore for restructuring.

These factors resulted in a heavy increase in the provisioning for bad assets, which moved up to Rs 714 crore in Q4 from Rs 460 crore a year ago, hurting the bottomline.
On asset quality outlook, Kochhar hinted that the worst is over, saying the bank is at the peak on NPAs and addition to bad assets and restructured assets will be lower in 2014-15.
The bank posted advances growth of 17 per cent in 2013-14, driven by 23 per cent expansion in retail assets, while the policy of calibrated approach on the corporate loans resulted in the wholesale book growing by only 8 per cent.

For FY'15, Kochhar said she expects asset book to outpace the system by 2-4 per cent and end up in the 18-20 per cent mark. Advances growth will continue to be driven by retail, she added.