Mumbai : Private sector lender Kotak Mahindra Bank (KMB) reported a 15.62 % jump in March quarter net at Rs 1,055.23 crore driven by a rise in core interest income.
The Uday Kotak-led bank, which merged with ING Vysya Bank in a Rs 15,000 crore deal on April 1 last year, had posted a consolidated net profit of Rs 912.60 crore in the year-ago period.
For the entire fiscal, its first as a larger merged entity, the bank posted a net profit of Rs 3,458.85 crore, up from the year ago’s Rs 3,045.45 crore. On a standalone basis, the fourth quarter net was up almost 32 % to Rs 695.78 crore.
Net interest income was up by over 65 % to Rs 1,857 crore, helped largely by an expansion in net interest margin to 4.35 %. Other income rose over 50 % to Rs 681.91 crore, but was down compared to Rs 722.16 crore in the preceding December quarter.
Kotak, the vice chairman and managing director, told reporters that the process of integration of businesses will get complete by June 2016. It is targeting a credit growth of up to 20 % in 2016-17, and will look at both the retail and wholesale segments for growth, he said. Even though the bank was comfortable on the asset quality front — the gross NPA ratio moved up just 6 basis points to 2.36 % — Kotak said recovery process for stressed assets from ING Vysya Bank is very tough, hurt by multiple factors like sluggish economic growth and the legal system. Its overall provisions reduced to Rs 200 crore and Kotak said the bank is targeting to halve the credit costs to under 0.45 % this fiscal from the 0.83 % achieved in 2015-16, which is representative of a post-integration normalisation.
