ICICI Securities Q2 PAT up 1 pc at Rs 135 cr

ICICI Securities has reported a one per cent rise in profit after tax (PAT) at Rs 135.12 crore for the September quarter.

The company had posted a PAT of Rs 134.22 crore in July-September quarter of 2018-19, ICICI Securities said in a regulatory filing.

The company. which is a part of the ICICI Group, posted a revenue of Rs 418.22 crore for the second quarter of 2019-20 as against Rs 458.10 crore in the year-ago quarter, down 9 per cent.

The revenue fell mainly due to decline in retail broking revenues and regulatory changes in mutual funds distribution business.

ICICI Securities (I-Sec), which is in the business of broking, distribution of financial products, and investment banking, declared an interim dividend of Rs 4.25 per share for the second quarter.

The company said it remains committed to pursuing cost efficiency by undertaking a number of initiatives like "centralising certain verticals to optimise infra and manpower cost, process re-engineering, harnessing group synergies, and migrating to digital/low touch coverage model".

"As a virtual financial supermarket, our continuing endeavour is to meet all the three need sets of our customers - wealth management and investments, protection of life and assets, and their borrowing needs," I-Sec MD and CEO Vijay Chandok said.

Digital is a centre piece to this strategy and a lot of initiatives have been taken like working with fintechs and startups to identify and launch winning solutions, deploy advanced analytics/ AI/ Big Data for better customer insights and personalised engagement, he said.

This is an exciting area for us and several pilots have been launched which would be rolled out in a phased manner, he added .