Bandhan Bank Q2 net rises 47.4% at Rs 488 crore on interest income growth

Private sector lender Bandhan Bank Wednesday reported a 47.4 per cent growth in its net profit at Rs 488 crore in the quarter ended September, aided by higher growth in interest income. It's profit after tax stood at Rs 331 crore in the same quarter last year.

"During the quarter, our net interest income grew by 55.6 per cent, which helped in the profitability. Also, our loan growth was 51 per cent and NPA movement was restricted," the bank's managing director and chief executive officer, Chandra Shekhar Ghosh, told reporters here.

The bank's net interest income for the quarter rose to Rs 1,078 crore, from Rs 693 crore in the year-ago quarter, while its net interest margins stood at 10.9 per cent, compared with 9.3 per cent. Gross non-performing assets (NPA) of the bank stood at 1.3 per cent, compared with 1.4 per cent, while net NPAs was at 0.7 per cent, against 0.8 per cent.

Deposits rose by 29.6 per cent to Rs 32,959 crore as on September 30, 2018, compared with Rs 25,442 crore as on September 30, 2017, while total advances increased by 51 per cent to Rs 33,373 crore, from Rs 22,111 crore.

Ghosh said micro credit loans constitutes 87 per cent of the total loan book and the balance is non-micro credit. "We are happy to continue to grow our micro credit portfolio as we have capacity and expertise," he said.

Last month, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) restrained the lender from opening new branches and also freezed remuneration of Ghosh for not meeting the licensing conditions.

The RBI's restriction came as the bank was not able to bring down the shareholding of its non-operative financial holding company (NOFHC), Bandhan Financial Holdings, to 40 per cent, from the current level of 82 per cent.

Ghosh said the bank is committed to maintain the regulatory compliance and is in talks with the apex bank on the plans to reduce the shareholding.

"The three options available to us are offer for sale (OFS), where the NOFHC dilutes, do a merger and acquisition, and depending upon business requirement, we can look at primary or secondary fund raising. We are evaluating these options," Ghosh said, adding the bank is yet to send a proposal on it to the RBI.

Micro finance institution Bandhan was given conditional approval by the RBI for setting up universal bank in April 2014. The bank became operational in 2015.

Ghosh said the bank has 938 branches, with an average of 3,000 customers per branch, and the focus now is on increasing the number of customers per branches.

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The bank's scrip Wednesday ended 5.60 per cent up at Rs 512.05 apiece on the BSE, against a 1.35 per cent rise in the benchmark.