ICICI Bank Q1 profit falls 8%, provisions rise

New Delhi: ICICI Bank Ltd, India`s third-biggest lender by assets, reported an 8 percent fall in its first-quarter profit on Thursday, largely in line with analysts` estimates, as provisions rose.

Net profit fell to 20.49 billion rupees ($319.6 million) in the quarter ended June 30, compared with the average analysts` estimate of 20.43 billion rupees, according to Thomson Reuters data. 

Indian banks are battling slower loan growth as companies have yet to restart projects they had stalled during an economic downturn. Banks have also been hit by higher provisions and regulatory scrutiny as bad loans in the sector hit a record $150 billion last December. 

The Mumbai-based bank, which has the highest bad loans in absolute terms among private sector lenders in the country, said it set aside 26.09 billion rupees in the June quarter towards loan-loss provisioning, almost 4 percent higher than a year earlier. Gross non-performing loans as a percentage of total loans rose to 7.99 percent at end-June from 7.89 percent at March-end and 5.28 percent a year earlier.

Net non-performing loans as a percentage of total loans fell to 4.86 percent at end-June from 4.89 percent at March-end, but rose compared with 3.01 percent a year earlier.

ICICI Bank`s domestic loans in the quarter grew 11 percent from a year earlier. Net interest income rose 8 percent year-on-year, while fee income increased 10 percent from a year earlier.