ICICI Bank Q4 net tanks 76 percent to Rs 702 crore

New Delhi: Top private sector lender ICICI Bank today reported 75.97 per cent decline in standalone net profit at Rs 701.89 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 31 on account of 2-fold rise in provisioning for bad loans. The bank’s net profit in the same quarter of the previous fiscal was Rs 2,922 crore. Its total income increased to Rs 18,590.86 crore for the January-March quarter of 2015-16, up 14.51 per cent from Rs 16,234.73 crore in the year-ago period, ICICI Bank said in a filing to BSE. [caption id=“attachment_2602380” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Reuters[/caption] During the quarter under review, its provisioning for bad loans was up substantially to Rs 3,326.21 crore as against Rs 1,344.73 crore in the January-March quarter of 2014-15. “The weak global economic environment, the sharp downturn in the commodity cycle and the gradual nature of the domestic economic recovery has adversely impacted the borrowers in certain sectors like iron and steel, mining, power, rigs and cement,” ICICI Bank said. “While the banks are working towards resolution of stress on certain borrowers in these sectors, it may take some time for solutions to be worked out, given the weak operating and recovery environment. In view of the above, the bank has on a prudent basis made a collective contingency and related reserve of Rs 3,600 crore during Q4-2016 towards exposures to these sectors,” it added. The bank’s net interest income increased by 6 per cent to Rs 5,404 crore in fourth quarter of 2015-16 from Rs 5,079 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal. On the asset quality front, the gross non-performing assets (NPA) or bad loans rose to 5.82 per cent of the gross advances during the last quarter, from 3.78 per cent in the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal. Also, net NPAs grew to 2.98 per cent of net advances, over 1.61 per cent in the year-ago period. For the entire 2015-16 fiscal, the bank’s net profit stood at Rs 9,726.29 crore as compared to Rs 11,175.35 crore in the previous financial year. Total income increased to Rs 68,062.48 crore last fiscal, from Rs 61,267.27 crore for the year ended March 2015. ICICI Bank shares were trading 0.94 per cent down at Rs 237.90 apiece on BSE.