Bandhan Bank posts 20 per cent rise in Q4 profit at Rs 388 crore

New Delhi: Private lender Bandhan Bank on Friday reported a 20.3 per cent rise in net profit at Rs 388 crore for the last quarter of 2017-18 fiscal on the back of healthy interest as well as non-interest income.

The bank had registered a net profit of Rs 322 crore in the January-March quarter of 2016-17 fiscal.

The net interest income (NII) for the quarter grew by 25.2 per cent to Rs 863 crore as against Rs 689 crore in the same quarter year earlier. Non-interest income jumped by 57.4 per cent to Rs 203 crore as against Rs 129 crore, the bank said in a regulatory filing.

Total income in the January-March period of 2017-18 increased to Rs 1,553.97 crore, up by 29 per cent from Rs 1,207.77 crore in same quarter of 2016-17. For the entire 2017-18 fiscal, the net profit grew by 21 per cent to Rs 1,346 crore against Rs 1,112 crore in 2016-17.

Interest income stood at Rs 3,032 crore for the year, up 26.1 per cent. Non-interest income shot up by 71.8 per cent to Rs 706 crore. Total income during the fiscal rose to Rs 5,508.48 crore, as against Rs 4,320.12 crore in preceding fiscal.

On the asset front, there was an uptick in bad loans with gross non-performing assets (NPAs) rising to 1.25 per cent of the gross advances as on March 31, 2018 as against 0.51 per cent by same time year earlier.

In absolute value, the gross NPAs were Rs 373.14 crore, compared with Rs 86.26 crore. Net NPAs increased to 0.58 per cent (Rs 172.90 crore) of the net advances by end of March 2018, versus 0.36 per cent (Rs 61.17 crore).

The Board of Directors at their meeting held today recommended a dividend of Re 1 per equity share out of the net profits for the year ended March 31, 2018, subject to approval of the shareholders, the bank said.

Commenting on the performance, Chandra Shekhar Ghosh, Managing Director and CEOof Bandhan Bank said: "The year 2017-18 has been a watershed year for the bank. We had successful initial public offering (lPO) which was subscribed 14.6 times. We will continue to strive to maintain the quality of assets, growth in assets and profitability."

During the year ended March 31, 2018, the bank successfully raised capital of Rs 3,662 crore through initial public offer by issuing 97,663,910 equity shares, Bandhan Bank said. Shares of the bank traded 3.86 per cent higher at Rs 513.90 on BSE.