ICICI Bank Q1 net profit up 17 pct, beats estimates

(Reuters) - ICICI Bank Ltd, India's second-biggest lender by assets, reported a 17 percent rise in quarterly profit, beating estimates, helped by loan growth and higher fee income.

Net profit for its fiscal first quarter ended June rose to 26.55 billion rupees ($440 million) from 22.74 billion rupees a year earlier, the Mumbai-headquartered bank said on Thursday. Analysts on average had expected a net profit of 25.73 billion rupees.

Net non-performing loans as a percentage of loans were 0.99 percent compared with 0.97 percent in the previous quarter. Net interest income, the difference between interest earned and paid, grew 18 percent annually to 44.92 billion rupees in the quarter.

ICICI Bank is the largest private sector lender in India, where nearly two dozen state-run banks account for two-thirds of the assets. ICICI's smaller rival HDFC Bank Ltd last week reported its slowest quarterly earnings growth in more than a decade.

(Reporting by Devidutta Tripathy; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)