ICICI Bank third-quarter profit misses estimates
(Reuters) - ICICI Bank (ICBK.NS)(IBN.N) reported a 2.7 percent fall in third-quarter net profit on Wednesday, missing analysts' estimates by a wide margin, due to tax expenses and higher provisions.
Net profit fell to 16.05 billion rupees ($225.51 million) in the three months to Dec. 31, from 16.50 billion rupees a year earlier, missing analysts' average estimate for a profit of 18.36 billion rupees, I/B/E/S data from Refinitiv showed.
However, gross bad loans as a percentage of total loans, a measure of asset quality, fell to 7.75 percent at the end of December, from 8.54 percent in the previous quarter and 7.82 percent in the same period a year earlier, India's third-biggest private-sector lender by market value said https://www.bseindia.com/xml-data/corpfiling/AttachLive/768e87cd-9696-4e5f-a1a4-eb3e39dc0942.pdf.
For an interactive graphic on the bad loans ratio at some Indian private-sector lenders, click https://tmsnrt.rs/2HFMoJq
The bank's seventh straight quarter of depressed results, which included a loss in the June quarter, occurred despite 11.7 percent growth in loans, which boosted net interest income by 20.5 percent.
Provisions climbed nearly 19 percent to 42.44 billion rupees. The bank also recognised a tax expense of 2.97 billion rupees in the quarter, versus a tax gain of 1.62 billion rupees in the same period the year before.
The results come days after India's federal investigating agency filed a case of criminal conspiracy and fraud against former ICICI CEO Chanda Kochhar and her husband Deepak Kochhar.
Reuters has not been able to reach Kochhar for comment on the allegations.
Shares of the bank closed 5.5 percent higher ahead of the results in a flat Mumbai market (.NSEI).
Smaller rival Axis Bank beat estimates for quarterly profit on Tuesday, driven by higher interest income and recoveries from written-off accounts.
($1 = 71.1720 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Chris Thomas in Bengaluru; Editing by Stephen Coates and Mark Potter)
