Retail loan expansion boosts IndusInd net by 25% to Rs 620 cr

Private sector lender IndusInd Bank reported a 25% jump in net profit for March quarter at Rs 620.35 crore, helped by a jump in retail assets that pushed its core interest income. For the full year to March 2016, the Hinduja group-promoted lender reported a net profit of Rs 2,286.45 crore, up 27 % from the previous year. Managing director and chief executive Ramesh Sobti said the numbers were up primarily due to a 37 % increase in net interest income at Rs 1,268.21 crore. This was aided primarily by a healthy jump in the highmargin retail advances, he said, adding the overall share of retail assets grew to 44 % of the loan book, up from the 41 % in December. The bank traditionally has been heavily dependent on truck and bus financing considering the fact that group company Ashok Leyland is the second largest truck and bus maker in the country. Sobti said the bank is targeting to get corporate and retail assets at an equal footing, but declined to give a timeline for the same. The other income grew 31 % to Rs 912.80 crore, helped by a 27 % surge in the core fee income, while the net interest margin widened to 3.94 %, up over 26 basis points year-on-year and 3 basis points from the December quarter. The city-headquartered lender is mulling to start selling credit cards through its partner PayUmoney from the second quarter, which will get the acquisition costs to a tenth of the current and also take its offering to the masses from the premium segment which it serves currently.

Gross non-performing assets ratio slipped 0.05 % to 0.87 % in the March quarter on a sequential basis. Overall provisions doubled to Rs 213.66 crore from Rs 107.44 crore in the year-ago period.