ICICI Bank on Saturday reported a 26 per cent rise in standalone net profit at Rs 1,221.36 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2020 even as provisions rose almost three times on a sequential basis.

The private sector lender had reported a net profit of Rs 969.06 crore in the year-ago period. However, provisions in the fourth quarter spiked to Rs 5,967.44 crore from Rs 2,083.20 crore in the third quarter of the fiscal. The provisions stood at Rs 5,451.41 crore in January-March 2019.

Addressing the media at a concall after the announcement of results, ICICI Bank president Sandeep Batra said the provisions made by the lender were significantly higher than that required under the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) norms.

It included a Covid-19 related provision of Rs 2,725 crore made against standard assets to further strengthen the balancesheet. He further disclosed that around 30 per cent of customers by value have opted for the loan moratorium announced by the central bank.

He added that excluding Covid-19 related provisions, the profit after tax would have been higher at Rs 3,260 crore.

Asset watch

There was some good news in the bank’s asset quality with absolute gross non-performing loans (NPAs) falling to Rs 41,409.16 crore during the quarter compared with Rs 43.453.86 crore in the preceding three months.

But there were gross additions of Rs 5,306 crore to NPAs during the quarter which was higher than Rs 4,363 crore seen in the third quarter of the year. This included its exposure to an oil trading firm for which necessary provisions have been made.

ICICI Bank added that the net non-performing assets fell 26 per cent from Rs 13,577 crore at March 31, 2019 to Rs 10,114 crore at March 31, 2020.

The lender said in its notes to accounts that the domestic economy would be impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic with contraction in industrial and services output across small and large businesses. The bank’s business is expected to be impacted by lower lending opportunities and revenues in the short to medium term.

During the period, its net interest income (NII) increased 17 per cent over the year-ago period to Rs 8,927 crore from Rs 7,620 crore.

Fund raising plan

The board of ICICI Bank on Saturday approved a fund-raising proposal via debt securities, including non-convertible debentures, in domestic markets up to an overall limit of Rs 25,000 crore or up to $3 billion from overseas markets.

Batra, however, indicated that such an enabling approval is taken every year and there was no specific reason behind the proposal.

HDFC AMC net falls

HDFC Asset Management Company (HDFC AMC) has reported a 9.53 per cent fall in net profits for the March quarter of 2020 at Rs 249.83 crore compared with Rs 276.17 crore a year ago.

Its total income declined to Rs 449.62 crore from Rs 547.67 crore in the year ago period.

During the period it had quarterly average assets under management of Rs 3,69,800 crore compared with Rs 3,42,300 crore as on March 31, 2019, a growth of 8 per cent.

HDFC AMC added that it had a 13.7 per cent market share in QAAUM of the mutual fund industry. Further, the QAAUM in actively managed equity oriented funds-equity oriented QAAUM excluding index funds stood at Rs 157400 crore as on March 31, 2020 with a market share of 15.2 per cent.