MUMBAI (Reuters) – HDFC Bank, India’s largest private lender, on Monday reported a bigger-than-expected 30% jump in first-quarter profit, helped by higher net interest income (NII) and strong loan growth.
The lender’s standalone net profit was at 119.52 billion rupees ($1.46 billion), up from 91.96 billion rupees a year ago. Analysts had expected a profit of 114.97 billion rupees, as per Refinitiv data.
The standalone numbers do not include the business of the bank’s subsidiaries.
The results come weeks after the bank completed a merger with parent Housing Development Finance Corp (HDFC) in a $40 billion deal aimed at tapping rising demand for home loans.
The lender saw advances rise 15.8% during the quarter, while deposits rose at a faster pace of 19.2%.
Post the merger, the share of retail and wholesale book of the bank was at 57% and 43% respectively, HDFC Bank’s chief financial officer Srinivasan Vaidyanathan said in a conference call.
The bank will continue to grow the retail book going forward, and focus will also be on products such as construction finance, and certain corporate loans among others, Vaidyanathan said.
HDFC’s deposits have been transitioned into those of HDFC Bank beginning July 1, he said. HDFC had retail liabilities worth 1.3 trillion rupees and non-retail liabilities worth 390 billion rupees as on June 30, he added.
HDFC Bank’s NII, or core lending income, rose 21.1% to 235.99 billion rupees. Net interest margin was at 4.1%, the bank said in a press release.
Asset quality was largely stable, with gross non-performing assets (NPA) ratio slipping slightly to 1.17% from 1.12% in the prior quarter. The figure stood at 1.28% a year ago.
Provisions and contingencies, or the funds set aside to cover loan losses, slipped 10.3% to 28.6 billion rupees.
Shares of the lender ended 2.07% higher on the BSE on Monday.
($1 = 82.1270 Indian rupees)
(This story has been refiled to add reporting and editing credits)
(Reporting by Siddhi Nayak and Chris Thomas; Editing by Varun H K)
