Mumbai: Buoyed by healthy growth in its net interest income (NII) and fee-based revenue, private sector lender Axis Bank today announced 31 per cent jump in its net profit in third quarter of this fiscal at Rs 656 crore.
Net profit last year in the corresponding quarter stood at Rs 500 crore.
Its fee-income rose to Rs 799.74 crore in the quarter compared to Rs 618.91 crore in the year-ago period, while NII grew by 45.12 per cent to Rs 1,349.11 crore, a press release said here.
Axis' gross advances during the quarter grew by 4.6 percent primarily in key segments such as SME, retail and home loan, banks' Chief Financial Officer Somnath Sengupta told here.
"SME, retail and homeloan portfolios have performed well.
Moving ahead, I see growth coming from large corporates as well on the back of improving economic activity. Given the current signals our loan growth in FY'10 is likely to be above 15 percent," Sengupta said.
Total income of the lender rose to Rs 3,871.74 crore during the quarter against Rs 3,716.9 crore a year ago. Total advances increased to Rs 84,770 crore, up 13 per cent from a year-ago period.
Deposits, as at December-end expanded to Rs 1,13,853.16 crore against Rs 1,05,715.51 crore same period previous year.
Moving ahead, the bank would focus mainly on improving its current, savings account deposits, which currently contribute 45 per cent to the total deposit base, he said.
The net interest margin of the bank during the quarter stood at 4 per cent against 3.12 per cent in the same period last year, which it would maintain in the last quarter as well, Sengupta said.
Net Non Performing Assets (NPAs), during the quarter, increased to 0.46 per cent compared to 0.39 per cent in the corresponding quarter last fiscal.
For the nine-month ended December 31, the company has posted a net profit of Rs 1,749.66 crore, up 41.79 per cent from Rs 1,233.91 crore for the same period last year.
The lender added 33 branches in the third quarter, taking the total number to 949.
Axis Bank has a capital adequacy ratio of 16.8 percent.
PTI
First Published: Friday, January 15, 2010, 21:15