Axis Bank on Wednesday reported a consolidated profit of Rs 1,849 crore for the second quarter ended September 30 against a consolidated loss of Rs 18 crore a year ago despite setting aside a higher quantum of money for potential reverses in loans.
On a standalone level, the third-largest private lender had a post-tax net of Rs 1,682.67 crore against a loss of Rs 112.08 crore in the year-ago period.
The bank’s total income (standalone) rose marginally to Rs 19,870.07 crore in the second quarter of 2020-21, from Rs 19,333.57 crore in the same period last year.
During the reporting quarter, it downgraded over Rs 4,000 crore of assets into "BB and below" taking the total quantum of such assets to over Rs 14,800 crore, and attributed three-fourths of the additions to estimated restructuring and the rest to internal reviews.
Total provisions carried for the low-rated book is over Rs 2,600 crore.
The bank’s chief executive and managing director Amitabh Chaudhry, however, said it has only received a “negligible” amount of requests for loan restructuring under the new scheme formulated by the RBI and asserted that there has not been any restructuring.
He added that borrowers have time till December 31 to make the recast requests. During the moratorium period, the bank had not admitted all the requests.
It has set aside an additional provisioning of Rs 3,143 crore during the September quarter, and the size of the buffer beyond the mandatory provisions now stands at Rs 10,839 crore.
The overall provisions during the quarter stood at Rs 4,580 crore as against Rs 3,518 crore in the year-ago period.
Overall slippages stood at Rs 931 crore for the reporting quarter and the same would have been higher by Rs 648 crore if not for the benefit extended under the Supreme Court directions on asset classification, its chief financial officer Puneet Sharma said.
RBL Bank
Private sector lender RBL Bank on Wednesday reported a 165 per cent jump in its September quarter net at Rs 144 crore on a lower base and guided towards some pressure in margins in the next quarter as interest from some stressed advances may not accrue.
