HDFC Bank Q3 net profit rises 20% to ₹4,642.60 cr

MUMBAI: HDFC Bank Ltd on Friday reported a 20.1% rise in its fiscal third quarter profit on higher net interest income (NII) and other income.

Net profit rose to ₹4,642.60 crore for the quarter ended December 31 from ₹3,865.33 crore a year ago.

According to 17 Bloomberg analysts’ estimates, the bank was expected to post a net profit of ₹4,706.90 crore.

NII or the core income a bank earns by giving loans increased 24.1% to ₹10,314.34 crore compared with ₹8,309.09 crore last year. Other income was at ₹3,869.17 crore, up 23.12% from ₹3,142.67 crore a year ago.

Provisions and contingencies jumped 88.81% to ₹715.78 crore from ₹115.38 crore a year ago. On quarter-on-quarter basis, it fell 8.45% from ₹1,476.19 crore.

Gross non-performing assets (NPAs) advanced 57.4% to ₹8,234.88 crore at the end of the December quarter from ₹5,232.27 crore in the same quarter last year.

The rise in bad loans was due to an annual exercise conducted by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) that pointed out divergence in asset classification for fiscal 2017.

For HDFC Bank, the diver- gence in gross bad loans, the difference between RBI’s assessment and that reported by the lender, stood at around ₹2,051.76 crore at end March 2017, while divergence in provisions was at ₹793.39 crore.

As a percentage of total loans, gross NPAs stood at 1.29% as compared to 1.26% in the previous quarter and 1.05% in the year-ago quarter.

Net NPAs were at 0.44% in the December quarter compared to 0.43% in the previous quarter and 0.32% in the same quarter last year.

Advances rose 27.51% from a year ago to ₹6.31 trillion. Deposits rose 10.1% to ₹6.99 trillion.

Shares of HDFC Bank closed at ₹1,951.20 on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on Friday, up 1% from its previous close, while the benchmark Sensex rose 0.71% or 251.29 points to 35,511.58.

AS A PERCENTAGE OF TOTAL LOANS, GROSS NPAS STOOD AT 1.29% AS COMPARED TO 1.26% IN THE PREVIOUS QUARTER AND 1.05% IN THE YEARAGO QUARTER