ICICI Bank Q3 net drops 32% to Rs 16.5 bn; smallest profit in 7 quarters

Gross bad loans as a percentage of total loans stood at 7.82% at the end of December, compared with 7.87% at Sept. 30 and 7.2% a year earlier.

ICICI Bank, India's third-largest lender by assets, reported its smallest profit in seven quarters on lower treasury income and as provisions rose from a year earlier but said bad loan additions were slowing.

Net profit for the three months to Dec. 31 fell 32% year on year to Rs 16.5 billion ($259.4 million), the bank said on Wednesday. That compared with a Rs 19.54 billion average forecast from 24 analysts, Thomson Reuters data shows.

Soured loans have nearly doubled at Indian banks over the past four years as a prolonged economic slowdown took its toll on the ability of companies