ICICI Bank Fourth-Quarter Profit Drops, Misses Estimates

ICICI Bank Ltd reported a 5 percent drop in fourth-quarter profit on Monday, missing estimates, partly as a rise in expenses overshadowed a fall in provisions for bad loans.

Asset quality improved at ICICI Bank, with gross bad loans as a percentage of total loans easing to 6.7 per cent in the quarter ended March 31, from 7.75 per cent in the previous quarter and 8.84 per cent a year earlier.

Provisions for bad loans fell 17.7 percent to 54.51 billion rupees. 

However, total expenses jumped 18.1 per cent to 146.80 billion rupees, led by 17 percent rise in interest that the bank paid on its deposits.    

Net profit dropped to 9.69 billion rupees ($139.71 million) in the three months ended March 31, from 10.20 billion rupees a year earlier when stricter central bank rules had forced the country's third-biggest lender by assets to account for more bad loans. 

Analysts were looking for a profit of 21.29 billion rupees, I/B/E/S data from Refinitiv showed.    

(Reuters)