ICICI Bank reports first quarterly loss

The bank reported a net loss of ₹119.55 cr due to a marktomarket hit on its investments, besides higher NPA provisions

MUMBAI: ICICI Bank Ltd, India’s largest private sector lender by assets, on Friday reported a net loss of ₹119.55 crore on a standalone basis for the June quarter, on account of rising bad loans and treasury losses.

The bank had reported a profit of ₹2,049 crore in the year-ago period. This is the first time that the bank has reported losses from its India operations.

According to ICICI Bank, it had taken a mark-to-market hit of ₹218 crore on its investments in government securities during the quarter, besides setting aside higher provisions against stressed accounts referred to the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) for insolvency proceedings.

The bank provided an additional amount of ₹706 crore against the secured portion of stressed accounts. Separately, it had taken a hit of ₹247 crore on a few fraud accounts, which was earlier debited from the reserves.

Its gross non-performing assets (NPAS) rose to ₹53,464 crore as on June 30, compared with ₹43,147 crore in the year-ago quarter. Gross NPAS, as a percentage of total advances, were at 8.81% in the June quarter compared to 7.99% in corresponding period of last year. Fresh loan slippages stood at ₹4,036 crore, the lowest in the last 11 quarters, compared with ₹15,737 crore in the previous quarter.

A poll of 17 analysts had expected the bank to post a profit of ₹1,459 crore in the first quarter. In a call with analysts, the management said fresh slippages will continue to be

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lower this year. However, the bank expects a further hit on its profit and loss account due to higher provisions.

“ICICI Bank reported a net loss for 1QFY19 driven by a sharp spike in loan loss provisions. The biggest positive surprise emerged on the asset quality front with a normalized pace of NPL formation during the quarter. We believe that the bank’s back-book is largely cleaned up from a balance sheet perspective,” said ASV Krishnan, a banking analyst with SBICAP Securities.

Operationally, the bank’s performance did not see a significant improvement. Net interest income rose to ₹6102 crores in the June quarter compared to ₹5590 crores in the quarter a year ago. Net interest margins as a percentage of total loans fell to 3.19% at the end of June 30 compared to 3.24% in the previous quarter. The quarter also saw a shake-up in the senior management at ICICI Bank with chief executive Chanda Kochhar being asked to go on indefinite leave after allegations resurfaced against her, including those of alleged conflict of interest over loans given to Videocon Group, whose chairman Venugopal Dhoot had business links with her husband Deepak Kochhar.

The board instead appointed Sandeep Bakshshi as the wholetime director and chief operating officer to take interim charge at the bank during Kochhar’s absence. All the allegations raised against Kochhar and the bank are currently being investigated by a panel headed by former Supreme Court judge BN Srikrishna.