MUMBAI:
Kotak Mahindra Bank on Monday reported a 33 per cent year-on-year rise in net profit to Rs. 1,682 crore for the quarter ended March, missing analysts’ estimates by a wide margin. Sequentially, the lender’s net profit fell on account of a rise in provisions.
The lender reported 8 per cent on-year growth in net interest income to Rs. 3,843 crore for the quarter, which was also below Street’s estimate.
The private sector lender reported a slight improvement in asset quality as gross non-performing assets ratio stood at 3.25 per cent for the quarter compared with 3.27 per cent in the previous quarter on a proforma basis. Similarly, the net NPA ratio fell to 1.21 per cent, from 1.24 per cent in the previous quarter.
The lender has accounted for all the non-performing loans that were not recognised in previous quarters due to the Supreme Court’s standstill on reporting of bad loans till August 31.
Till December 31, with respect to cases not considered NPAs, the bank had considered a full hit for provisions and income as provisions for advances. After the Supreme Court’s order, the bank retrospectively reversed income and consequently adjusted provisions and contingencies, Kotak Mahindra Bank said in an exchange filing.
The private sector lender said that it has retained Covid-19 related provisions at Rs. 1,279 crore at the end of the quarter.
Kotak Bank reported mere 2 per cent growth in loans for the quarter ended March to Rs 2.23 lakh crore, reflecting the impact of the management’s conservative approach adopted since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Kotak Bank’s net interest margin stood at 4.39 per cent in the quarter, lower than 4.72 per cent in the year-ago period.
Kotak Bank’s operating performance was firm as operating profit rose 25 per cent on a year-on-year basis to Rs. 3,407 crore.
The lender’s provisions and contingencies at the end of the quarter stood at Rs. 1,179 crore, which was higher than the Rs. 1,047 crore reported a year ago. On a sequential basis, the metric more than doubled from Rs. 419 crore.
The bank also declared a final dividend of 90 paise per share.