Faster loan repricing amid rate hikes helps ICICI Bank report record nos in Q4; consolidated net up 27%

ICICI Bank on Saturday reported a 27 per cent jump in its March quarter net profit on a consolidated basis to Rs 9,852.7 crore on handsome growth in core earnings boosted mainly by lending rate hikes.

On a standalone basis, the largest private sector lender reported a nearly 30 per cent jump in its standalone net to Rs 9,121.87 crore, its highest ever for a three-month period.

Powering the profit was the best growth in the core net interest income (NII) at 40 per cent to Rs 17,667 crore, driven by a widening of the net interest margin to 4.90 per cent as against 4 per cent in the year-ago period, and a nearly 19 per cent jump in advances.

Its executive director Sandeep Batra told reporters that nearly half of its loans are linked to the repo rate, and get automatically repriced with every rate hike by the Reserve Bank, whereas the deposit rates increase with a lag, which helped the margins.

Batra said the NIMs are near the peak and there will be a downward bias on the same, as the deposit rates in the system catch up. Its total income moved up to Rs 36,108.88 crore in the reporting quarter, as against Rs 27,412.32 crore in the year-ago period, while the overall expenses moved up to Rs 22,282.50 crore from Rs 17,119.38 crore in the year-ago period

The bank's deposit hike came at 10.9 per cent amid what industry executives have been calling as a war for deposits in the system. Batra said the bank's offerings are competitively priced, and it does not feel that the slower growth in deposits will prove to be a constraint for expanding advances.

Its overall advances were driven by the business banking segment with a 35 per cent growth, while retail grew at 22.7 per cent with a larger base.

Batra said loan growth is happening across sectors, and there have been some traces of private capital expenditure revival though the capital expenditure is led by public spending. He added that in Q4, it also loaned money to non-bank lenders and the commercial realty sector companies.

Continuing with the trend of setting aside more money as contingent provisions, ICICI Bank put Rs 1,600 crore more into the contingent provisions bucket and attributed the same as a shield if any stress on the macroenvironment precipitates into a challenge for its loanbook.

The overall contingency provision now stands at Rs 13,100 crore and Batra stressed that the money has been set aside given uncertainties on the macro front and asserted that the bank does not see any adverse happenings on its books.

The gross non-performing assets ratio improved to 2.81 per cent from the year-ago period's 3.60 per cent and 3.07 per cent in the quarter-ago period.

The overall additions or the gross slippages stood at Rs 4,297 crore during the quarter, of which Rs 4,020 crore were in the retail segment alone, and the contribution of SME and corporate together was only Rs 277 crore. The net additions were only Rs 14 crore, giving the leeway for setting aside more money as contingent provisions.

The overall provisions for the quarter stood at Rs 1,619 crore as against Rs 1,068 crore in the year-ago period and Rs 2,257 crore in the preceding December quarter.

When asked about concerns about unsecured lending, Batra said its personal loans are over Rs 88,000 crore while credit card book is nearly Rs 38,000 crore. The bank is "comfortable" with the quality of the book, Batra added.

Its overseas advances book declined by over 17 per cent in FY23, and now forms only 3.3 per cent of the overall advances. Batra said this is reflective of a trend where Indian growth is outpacing the major economies in the world.

The bank's overall capital adequacy stood at 18.34 per cent, which included core capital buffer at a healthy 17.6 per cent.

Among the subsidiaries, the life insurance arm reported a post-tax net of Rs 235 crore as against Rs 185 crore, general insurance arm witnessed a jump to Rs 437 crore from Rs 313 crore, while the asset management arm's net improved marginally to Rs 385 crore during the quarter.

The bank scrip closed 1.13 per cent down at Rs 884.20 apiece on the BSE on Friday as against marginal gains on the benchmark.