IDFC Bank fourth-quarter profit falls 76 percent as bad loan provisions surge

(Reuters) - India's private sector lender IDFC Bank Ltd on Tuesday reported a 76 percent plunge in its quarterly profit, hurt by a jump in provisions to cover bad loans.

Net profit came in at 419.3 million rupees ($6.3 million), for the quarter ended March 31, compared with 1.76 billion rupees a year ago, IDFC Bank reported.

Gross bad loans as a percentage of total loans stood at 3.31 percent at end-March, compared with 5.62 percent in the preceding quarter and 2.99 percent a year ago.

Provisions and contingencies surged to 2.42 billion rupees in the quarter, from 48 million rupees in the year-earlier quarter.

 

($1 = 66.4250 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Vishal Sridhar in Bengaluru; Editing by Amrutha Gayathri)