HDFC Bank on Saturday met Street estimates when it reported a 23 per cent growth in net profits for the March quarter.

Net profits of the private sector lender rose to Rs 5,885.1 crore from Rs 4,799.28 crore a year ago.

This growth in its bottomline came on the back of a strong rise in its core net interest income (NII is interest earned minus interest expended) along with an improvement in its asset quality.

NII for the quarter grew nearly 23 per cent to Rs 13,089.5 crore from Rs 10,657.7 crore.

HDFC Bank said this was driven by an average asset growth of 19.8 per cent and a core net interest margin of 4.4 per cent.

Other income (non-interest revenue) also contributed as it rose 15 per cent to Rs 4,871.2 crore from Rs 4,228.6 crore in the year-ago period.

Of this, fees & commissions generated Rs 3,692.1 crore compared with Rs 3,329.7 crore in the same period of the previous year.

HDFC Bank’s asset quality also showed an improvement when gross non-performing assets stood at 1.36 per cent of gross advances as on March 31, 2019, against 1.38 per cent in the preceding quarter and 1.30 per cent as on March 31, 2018.

In absolute terms, the gross bad loans were at Rs 11,224.16 crore compared with Rs 10,902.86 crore on a sequential basis.

However, provisions rose to Rs 1,889.2 crore from Rs 1,541.1 crore. This included specific loan loss provisions at Rs 1,431.2 crore (Rs 1,132.5 crore).

HDFC Bank said the total advances as of March 31, 2019 were Rs 819,401 crore, an increase of 24.5 per cent over March 31, 2018.

Here, domestic advances grew 24.6 per cent over their year-ago period.

While domestic retail loans showed a growth of 19 per cent, the wholesale segment rose almost 32 per cent. The loan mix between retail and wholesale stood at 54:46.

The lender added that the total balance sheet size as of March 31, 2019 was Rs 1,244,541 crore against Rs 1,063,934 crore as of March 31, 2018.

Total deposits as of March 31, 2019 were Rs 923,141 crore. Of this, the low-cost current and saving accounts (CASA) deposits grew 14 per cent with savings account deposits at Rs 248,700 crore and current account deposits at Rs 142,498 crore.

CASA deposits accounted for 42.4 per cent of the total deposits as of March 31, 2019.

At its board meeting on Saturday, the directors recommended a dividend of Rs 15 per share against Rs 13 per share for the previous year.

They also decided to terminate its GDR programme. The bank’s GDRs are listed on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange (LSE) and HDFC Bank said this decision has been taken in view of the minimal number of GDRs outstanding and the low trading volume of the instrument.

The board also approved raising up to Rs 50,000 crore through private placement of debt instruments in the next 12 months, subject to the approval of shareholders.