Meeting market estimates,ICICI Bank,Indias second largest bank,has clocked a net profit of Rs 1,006 crore in the fourth quarter ended March 2010,a rise of 35 per cent as against Rs 744 crore in the same period of last year. While its total income for the period stood at Rs 7,717 crore as against Rs 9,203 crore in the year-ago period,fee income increased 13 per cent to Rs 1,521 crore in Q4-2010 from Rs 1,343 crore in the previous period. It has posted the highest ever consolidated profit after tax of over $1 billion (Rs 4,670 crore) for the year ended March 2010,a rise of 31 per cent from Rs 3,577 crore for the year ended March 2009. ICICI Bank managing director and CEO Chanda Kochhar said that credit demand was picking-up and in Q4 FY10 "our net customer assets have grown substantially." "I expect credit growth to be strong," she said,adding the bank hoped to clock a 16-20 per cent loan growth this fiscal (FY 11). Its been a good year for us there was a strong growth in CASA deposits,an improvement in net interest margins and a decrease in our net NPAs, Kochhar said. Our CASA increased substantially and I expect it to rise this fiscal as well in absolute terms. In percentage terms,it will depend on our balance-sheet growth. During the year ended March 31,2010,the bank has significantly strengthened its deposit franchise. This is reflected in the strong growth in savings and current account (CASA) deposits and increase in the CASA ratio. CASA deposits increased 34 per cent to Rs. 84,216 crore at March 31,2010 from Rs. 62,668 crore at March 31,2009 and the CASA ratio increased from 28.7 per cent at March 31,2009 to 41.7 per cent at March 31,2010. Total deposits of the bank were down at Rs 202,017 crore ($45 billion) on March 31,2010 compared to Rs 218,348 crore on March 31,2009. The branch network of the bank has increased to 1,741 branches at April 24,2010 giving the bank a wide distribution reach in the country. The loan book of the bank decreased to Rs 181,206 crore at March 31,2010 from Rs 218,311 crore at March 31,2009 mainly due to the repayments from the retail loan portfolio and the loan portfolio of overseas branches. Kochhar expected provisioning to reduce going forward as addition to NPAs were coming down in the last four-quarters. Net non-performing assets decreased to Rs 3,901 crore at March 31,2010 from Rs 4,619 crore at March 31,2009 and Rs 4,416 crore at December 31,2009. The bank's net non-performing asset ratio decreased by 32 basis points to 1.87 per cent at March 31,2010 from 2.19 per cent at December 31,2009.
