ICICI Bank on Saturday reported a whopping 261 per cent growth in net profit for the fourth quarter ended March 2021 as provisions showed a sharp fall over the year-ago period. The private sector bank reported a standalone net profit of Rs 4,402.61 crore compared with Rs 1,221.36 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year.

However, the bottomline fell short of analyst estimates who were pencilling in a number in the range of Rs 4,500-5,000 crore.

The jump in its net profit came on the back of a 17 per cent growth in core net interest income (NII-interest earned minus interest expended) that rose to Rs 10,431 crore from Rs 8,927 crore in the same period of the previous year.

Moreover, provisions showed a sharp drop over the year-ago period.

During January-March 2020, banks had stepped up their provision coverage because of the pandemic-induced nationwide lockdown. Provisions at ICICI Bank fell to Rs 2,883.47 crore against Rs 5,967.44 crore.

ICICI Bank disclosed that in addition to the Covid-19 related provision of Rs 2,725 crore made in 2019-20, it made a Rs 5,550-crore provision during the first quarter of 2020-21.

During the third quarter, the bank used Rs 1,800 crore of the Covid-19 related provisions made in the earlier periods. The lender added that during the fourth quarter, on a prudent basis, it had made additional Covid-related provision amounting to Rs 1,000 crore. Therefore, as on March 31, 2021, the bank held aggregate Covid-19 related provision of Rs 7,475 crore.

During the fourth quarter of 2020-21, ICICI Bank’s asset quality improved. The percentage of gross non-performing assets (NPAs) to gross customer assets stood at4.96 per cent against proforma gross NPA of 5.42 per cent in the preceding three months.