ICICI Bank Q4 profits hit by rising bad loans

India’s largest private sector lender by assets ICICI Bank has been hit by a surge in bad loans with fourth quarter net profits down by 76 per cent.

Net profits for the three months to March 31 fell to Rupees 7.02bn ($105m) from Rupees 29.22bn for the comparable period last year, writes John Murray Brown.

Gross bad loans accounted for 5.82 per cent of total loans at the end of March compared with 4.72 per cent of the loan book at the end of December.

Specific provisions for identified bad loans increased from Rupees 1.3bn to Rupees 3.3bn.

The bank also put aside an additional Rupees 3.6bn in a special reserve over and above its regular bad debt provision in what was described as a contingent provision. Analysts said this was in line with guidelines set by the Reserve Bank of India, India’s central bank.

For the full year, net profit fell 15 per cent to Rupees 97.2bn ($1.45bn). Total income increased 11 per cent from Rupees 612bn to Rupees 681bn.