India's Axis Bank Q2 profit rises around 36%

[BENGALURU] Axis Bank Ltd, India's third-biggest private sector lender by assets, said on Tuesday second-quarter net profit jumped by about 36 per cent, as provisions for bad loans eased from a year earlier.

Net profit rose to 4.32 billion rupees (S$90.2 million) for the quarter ended Sept 30. Provisions and contingencies fell about 13 per cent to 31.40 billion rupees.

Gross bad loans as a percentage of total loans stood at 5.90 per cent in the quarter, compared with 5.03 per cent a quarter earlier and 4.17 per cent a year earlier Outstanding loans on the bank's watch list, or potential troubled loans, fell 24 per cent from the previous quarter to 60.52 billion rupees as of end-September.

Net interest income for the quarter grew 1 per cent from a year earlier, while fee income grew 12 per cent. Its net interest margin was 3.45 per cent, compared with 3.63 per cent a quarter earlier.

After pushing 12 of the country's biggest loan defaulters to bankruptcy proceedings earlier this year, India's central bank has directed banks to take 28 more companies to bankruptcy court if other forms of debt resolution do not work out by mid-December.

Axis Bank said as of the end of June it had outstanding loans of 18.43 billion rupees to 12 companies in the latest central bank list, and a non-fund exposure of 6.49 billion rupees. It added that three-quarters of the outstanding loans were secured.

REUTERS