Mumbai, May 5: Kotak Mahindra Bank, the country's fourth-biggest private lender by assets, today reported a 38 per cent jump in consolidated net profit for the quarter ended March and said it would issue free shares to investors.

The bank will issue one bonus share for every share held, pending approval in the annual shareholders' meeting, it said in a stock exchange filing today.

The bonus issue has been attributed to the good performance of Kotak Mahindra Group over the last 30 years and is a gesture to welcome the shareholders of ING Vysya Bank. The lender bought smaller rival ING Vysya Bank in a Rs 15,000-crore all-stock deal and their operations were combined effective April.

Kotak Mahindra Bank's net profit for the January-March quarter jumped 37.70 per cent to Rs 913 crore, boosted by a doubling of non-interest income.

Consolidated income rose 29 per cent to Rs 6,172.26 crore.

Core net interest income grew 16 per cent to Rs 1,123 crore, but it was the non-interest side, which helped to drive up the profit for the group.

Other income nearly doubled to Rs 1,018.10 crore on a consolidated basis from Rs 524.70 crore a year ago.

On a standalone basis, net profit shot up 29.4 per cent to Rs 527.14 crore from Rs 407.1 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 2014. Total income rose to Rs 3,249.08 crore from Rs 2,552.96 crore.