HDFC Bank, India’s third largest bank by lending, has posted a 23 per cent rise in net profit for the fourth quarter, its slowest growth in a more than a decade. The bank’s net profit rose to Rs 2,326.5 crore for the fiscal fourth quarter ending March from Rs 1,889.8 crore in the same year-ago period. HDFC, which used to report a high profit growth of about 30 per cent, has seen profit growth weaken in the past three quarters as loans and fee incomes grew at a slower pace. Net interest income — the difference between interest earned and paid out — rose 15.3 per cent to Rs 4,953 crore in the three months to March, the bank said on Tuesday. Asset quality remained stable with gross non-performing assets (NPAs) remaining unchanged at 1 per cent compared to December quarter as well as corresponding quarter of last fiscal. Net NPAs too were unchanged at 0.3 per cent quarter-on-quarter but rose 10 basis points compared to same quarter last year. Net interest margin for the quarter was at 4.4 per cent. “All the key parameters like revenues, costs and provisions have been under check,” said HDFC Bank executive director Paresh Sukthankar. Saday Sinha, banking analyst, Kotak Securities, said, “HDFC bank’s numbers came largely in line with our expectations. Core performance was aided by 20 bps QoQ improvement in net interest margin along with strong loan growth. We have the positive bias on the HDFC Bank, which has only 50 bps of loan book under stress portfolio (net NPA + restructured book).”
