HDFC Bank Q2 result profit rises 20%

HDFC Bank Ltd on Tuesday reported a 20.1% jump in its September quarter net profit due to higher net interest income and other income.

The bank reported a profit of Rs4,151.03 crore, up from Rs3,455.33 crore a year ago. According to 21 analysts polled by Bloomberg, the bank was expected to post a net profit of Rs4,171.40 crore.

Net interest income (NII) or the core income a bank earns by giving loans rose 22% to Rs9,752.07 crore versus Rs7,993.59 crore last year. Other income increased 24.3% to Rs3,605.90 crore from Rs2,900.95 crore in the same period last year.

Provisions and contingencies surged 97.09% to Rs1,476.19 crore from Rs748.99 crore a year ago. On a quarter-on-quarter basis, they declined 5.3% from Rs1,558.76 crore.

As a percentage of total loans, gross non-performing assets (NPAs) rose to 1.26% as compared to 1.24% in the previous quarter and 1.02% in the year-ago quarter.

Net NPAs came in at 0.43% in the September quarter, compared to 0.44% in the previous quarter and 0.3% in the same quarter a year earlier.

Gross NPAs stood at Rs7,702.84 crore, up 52% from Rs5,069.04 crore a year ago.

Paresh Sukthankar, deputy managing director of HDFC Bank, said that the lender is regulatory dialogue related to one project loan account, where joint lenders’ forum had approved flexible structuring in February 2016 under the so-called 5/25 scheme.

The regulator had made certain observations on the implementation of the scheme and the bank has given its submission.

The project loan was through a consortium format and the share of HDFC Bank in the outstanding was 2.3%.a

Sukthankar, who did not divulge further details on this account, added that the account remained standard throughout.

However, pending regulatory dialogue, the bank had made sufficient contingent provisions as at the end of September.

Advances for the quarter grew 22.34% to Rs6.05 trillion from a year ago. Deposits went up by 16.5% to Rs6.89 trillion.

The bank saw stronger growth in retail as well as corporate loans.

“While currently we are seeing growth on the working capital side, over the next 12-18 months if capex-related demand picks up, we will participate in that. On the retail side, we see a good momentum in auto loans, personal loans, credit cards and in some of the smaller products such as loans against securities,” he said.