bank on us

Mumbai, Jan. 8: HDFC Bank has posted a 31.1 per cent rise in net profit for the third quarter of the current financial year. Net profit rose to Rs 170.9 crore against Rs 130 crore in the corresponding period last year.

During the period, the bank earned a total income of Rs 979.6 crore against Rs 782.5 crore in the corresponding quarter ended December 31, 2003. Net interest income increased by Rs 82.6 crore to Rs 440 crore on the back of an average asset growth of 28.6 per cent and a core net interest margin of 3.7 per cent, the bank added.

The bank revealed that during the period, its total deposits were Rs 37,429 crore, an increase of 26.4 per cent over Rs 29,606 crore as on December 31, 2003. Due to its focus on building savings account deposits, this figure saw a growth of 56 per cent to Rs 10,876 crore over the corresponding period last year.

According to HDFC Bank, its core customer assets, including advances, corporate debentures, and CPs, increased from Rs 17,027 crore as on December 31, 2003 to Rs 24,277 crore as on December 31, 2004, a growth of 42.6 per cent.

At the retail end, gross retail loans grew 80.2 per cent on a year-on-year basis to Rs 11,078 crore. It now forms over 46 per cent of the bank?s gross advances against 39.4 per cent of gross advances during the same period last year.

HDFC Bank said the portfolio quality during the period remained healthy with net non-performing assets at 0.2 per cent of customer assets and 0.3 per cent of advances. It added that general loan loss provisions were about 0.7 per cent of standard advances as against the regulatory requirement of 0.25 per cent.

Further, the capital adequacy ratio (CAR) was 9.4 per cent after factoring the increased risk weights on consumer credit and investments in mortgage backed securities due to the new directives issued by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

Other income for the quarter was Rs 200.5 crore and this included fees & commissions of Rs 150.3 crore (Rs 81.3 crore) and foreign exchange & derivatives revenues of Rs.43.9 crore (Rs 25.6 crore). However, profit on sale and revaluation of investments declined to Rs 4.9 crore against Rs 11.6 crore for the same quarter last year.

Provisions and contingencies for the quarter were Rs 113.1 crore, thus showing an increase of 36.1 per cent over the corresponding quarter ended December 31, 2003.

For the nine-month period, the bank earned a total income of Rs 2,658 crore against Rs 2,223 crore in the same period last year. During this period, the bank?s net profit was Rs 463.2 crore, a growth of around 31 per cent over the corresponding nine months ended December 31, 2003.

J&K Bank

Jammu and Kashmir Bank has reported a 33 per cent fall in net profit at Rs 73 crore for the third quarter ended December 31.

The bank?s net profit was Rs 110 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal, the bank said in a release. The total income of the bank also declined by 17 per cent to Rs 392 crore during October-December this fiscal compared with Rs 473 crore in the year-ago period.