ICICI Bank profit up 17 percent on better loans
ICICI Bank, India's largest private sector bank, said quarterly profit rose 17 percent as it cut costs and eliminated bad loans amid revived credit demand in India's growing economy.
Net profit in the quarter ended June 30 was 10.3 billion rupees ($221 million), roughly in line with expectations, up from 8.78 billion rupees ($189 million) in the year ago period, the company said Saturday.
Total income slipped 18.8 percent from the year-ago quarter, to 74.9 billion rupees.
The bank reduced its net non-performing assets to 1.62 percent of the total, down from 2.19 percent a year ago.
The provisions it set aside for bad loans decreased 40 percent, to 7.9 billion rupees.
Meanwhile, the bank grew its loan book slightly, to 1.84 trillion rupees from 1.81 trillion rupees a year ago.
Chief Executive Chanda Kochhar told reporters she expects credit demand to grow 15 percent in the year ending March 2011.
Booming industrial activity and demand for telecom financing boosted non-food credit growth to 22.3 percent in July, up from 17.1 percent in March, India's central bank said last week.
ICICI's operating expenses fell 2 percent, to 1.5 billion rupees from the year-ago quarter, while fee income grew 7 percent, to 14.2 billion rupees ($304 million).
The bank continued to improve the quality of its deposits, increasing low-cost deposit accounts to 42.1 percent of the total from 30.4 percent a year ago.
Copyright 2010 AP News
