HDFC Bank Q1 net jumps 31% on strong growth in lending

HDFC Bank reported a 31 per cent growth in net profit at Rs 1,417 crore in the June quarter on strong loan and fee income growth.

The private sector lender had reported a net profit of Rs 1,085 crore in the year-ago period.

During the quarter, net interest income (interest earned less interest expended) rose by 22 per cent to Rs 3,484 crore. Non-interest income — arising from higher fees and commissions, foreign exchange and derivatives income — grew by 37 per cent to Rs 1529.50 crore.

Advances, Deposits

Year-on-year, the bank’s loan book increased by 21.5 per cent to Rs 2.13 lakh crore (with a ratio of retail to wholesale at 52:48), while the total deposits increased by 22 per cent to Rs 2.57 lakh crore.

CASA (current and savings account) deposits accounted for 46 per cent of the total deposits.

According to Mr Aditya Puri, Managing Director, deregulation in the savings bank deposit rate did not have much impact on the bank’s savings deposits.

With regard to deposit rates, he said, “As of today, deposits have not grown at the same pace as assets have. So, unless deposit rates come down… base rate cannot come down.”

Restructuring

With the exposure to the power sector at 2.3 per cent of the total loans, the total restructured loans for the bank were at 0.32 per cent of the total loans. Half of the restructured loans are non-performing assets.

“We don’t see major variations in the margins and they are likely to stay around 3.9 per cent to 4.2 per cent,” added Mr Puri.

“If GDP grows at six per cent, fundamentally credit growth is likely to be at 15-17 per cent,” he said. Mr Puri doesn’t expect the RBI to cut interest rates.

>beena.parmar@thehindu.co.in

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