ICICI Bank crosses Rs 10,000 crore milestone, Q4 net up 15%

The country's largest private sector lender, ICICI Bank, reported a 15% jump in profit after tax (PAT) at Rs 2,652 crore for the quarter ending March 2014 as against Rs 2,304 crore in the comparable Q4 of FY2013.

The marked improvement in net profit was backed by higher non-interest income, retail advances and fee income.

The bank's performance was, however, better than the street expectation of Rs 2,550 crore, a Reuters report said.

The bank's standalone profit after tax rose 18% year-on-year to Rs 9,810 crore for FY2014 as against Rs 8,325 crore of FY2013.

The consolidated profit after tax crossed the Rs 10,000 crore milestone to Rs 11,041 crore, while its annualised return on assets stood at 1.86% (1.76%). The bank's loan book grew 17% annually at Rs 3.4 lakh crore. Net interest margin for the quarter was 3.35%.

Announcing the bank's performance, managing director and CEO, Chanda Kochhar, said the bank expects non performing assets to be lower in FY2015 as compared to FY2014. Net non-performing loans as a percentage of total assets rose to 0.97% during the quarter from 0.77% in the same quarter of 2013.

Total expenditure excluding provisions and contingencies in Q42014 were to the tune of Rs 10,011.85 crore and provision made were Rs 713.78 crore.

Its provisions for bad loans jumped more than 55% in the March quarter to Rs 714 crore.

The capital adequacy ratio was 17.7% as per Basel III norms and for Tier-I it was 12.87%.

The recent trend in earnings show that the slowdown in the economy has led banks to focus more on retail than corporate.

The bank has declared a dividend of Rs 23 per share. The stock on Friday closed lower on the NSE by 2.35% or Rs 30.55 at Rs 1,269.