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ICICI Bank posted a net profit growth of 34.2 per cent year-on-year to ₹8,312 crore in Q3FY23, led by 19.7 per cent y-o-y and 3.8 per cent quarter-on-quarter growth in advances to ₹9.7-lakh crore.
The growth was led by 21.4 per cent increase in domestic loans and 23.4 per cent rise in retail loans. Retail loans comprised 54.3 per cent of total loans as of December 31.
Net interest income (NII) increased by 34.6 per cent y-o-y to ₹16,465 crore. Net interest margin (NIM) for the quarter was 4.65 per cent — an increase from 3.96 per cent a year ago and 4.31 per cent a quarter ago.
In the post earnings call, Sandeep Batra, Executive Director, said that NIMs should peak within a quarter or so and threreon will start to stabilise once deposit rates pick up. Despite the slower growth in deposits, the bank is comfortable on borrowing and liquidity with an LCR of 123-124 per cent, he said, adding that the bank is confident that the aspirational loan growth will not be constrained by deposit accretion.
Provisions
Provisions for the quarter were 12.5 per cent higher at ₹2,257 crore. During the quarter, the bank changed its NPA provisioning norms to make them more conservative, which resulted in higher provisions of ₹1,196 crore. The bank also made contingency provisions of ₹1,500 crore on a prudent basis. The bank held total contingency provisions of ₹11,500 crore at the end of December.
Batra said that the provisions had been made on a prudent basis keeping in mind the global and domestic macro environment, inflation, interest rates and geo-political scenario, in order to strengthen the balance sheet.
Asset quality
He said that the bank had a conservative-than-RBI policy on provisioning for retail assets which it has now extended to corporate loans, adding that hereon the bank will continue to provide for loans as per the revised model.
NPA additions, including slippages for the quarter, were at ₹5,723 crore, which were largely offset by recoveries and upgrades of ₹4,604 crore. The bank also wrote-off loans worth ₹1,162 crore during the quarter.
The gross NPA ratio declined to 3.07 per cent at the end of December from 3.19 per cent a quarter ago and 4.13 per cent a year ago. The net NPA ratio at 0.55 per cent was also better than 0.61 per cent in the previous quarter and 0.85 per cent a year ago.
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