ICICI Bank net up by a record 30%

India's second-largest lender ICICI Bank on Friday beat market expectations with a 30% year-on-year rise in standalone profit at Rs. 1,956 crore for the July-September quarter - its highest ever for a quarter - against Rs. 1,503 crore a year ago, driven by a healthy growth in loans. HT reports.

India's second-largest lender ICICI Bank on Friday beat market expectations with a 30% year-on-year rise in standalone profit at Rs. 1,956 crore for the July-September quarter - its highest ever for a quarter - against Rs. 1,503 crore a year ago, driven by a healthy growth in loans.

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"Credit growth has been 18% on a year-on-year basis for this quarter, which is quite diversified," said Chanda Kochhar, managing director and CEO, ICICI Bank.

The bank's advances increased by 18% at Rs. 275,076 crore compared to Rs. 233,952 crore a year ago.

Net interest income (the difference between interest earned and interest paid) of the bank grew by 35% at Rs. 3371 crore, while non-interest income grew by 17% at Rs. 2,043 crore.

Net interest margin (NIM), a measure of a bank's profitability, improved to 3% for the quarter ended September from 2.6% for the same quarter last year.

"Our target is to at least maintain the margin at 3% in fact we would look to improving margins," said Kochhar.

"The bank has delivered another good set of numbers, both on the operating level as well as on asset quality," said Vaibhav Agrawal, vice-president, research, Angel Broking.