 "The main highlights of HDFC Bank's results press conference")
HDFC Bank, India’s third-biggest lender by assets, said net profit for the January-March quarter rose 23 percent, the slowest growth in a decade. The results were in line with analyst estimates.
The bank’s net profit rose R 2,327 crore, up from Rs 1,890 crore a year ago. For more on the results, click here.
In a press conference, the bank’s management said the financial institution has delivered on all financial parameters.
Here are some of the key highlights:
- The current account and savings account ratio of the bank stood at 44.8 percent at the end of March 2014. A higher CASA proportion to total deposits tends to lower the cost of deposits for banks, according to analysts.
- The cost-to-income ratio of the bank, a measure of cost for a bank, came in at 45.7 percent for the January-March quarter, down from 51.5 percent the previous quarter.
- The bank has 3,403 branches across India at the end of March, 55 percent of which are in rural and semi-urban areas. It opened 67 new branches in January-March, all of which were in unbanked regions.
The bank’s overall asset quality has shown stability over the past few quarters, and incremental non-performing assets formation has decelerated. In other words, the formation of bad loans has slowed.
- Even in the commercial vehicles loan portfolio, which had aroused some concern in past quarters, NPA formation is “tending to stabilise”. “The pace of NPA formation has come off,” said Paresh Sukhtankar, deputy managing director of HDFC Bank.
About 53 percent of the bank’s loan book is made up of wholesale loans, while 43 percent comprises retail loans. the bank’s management said wholesale loan growth had outpaced retail growth in the January-March quarter.
The bank aims to outpace industry growth by at least 2 percent in the future. In FY 14, the bank’s loan book grew by 20 percent, against the industry’s growth of about 14 percent.
- The bank’s balance sheet stood at Rs 4,91, 600 crore at the end of March, while its capital asset ratio was 16.1 percent.
- The bank announced a dividend of Rs 6.85 per share.