IDFC First Bank Profit Jumps Over 165% To Rs 343 Crore In March Quarter

IDFC First Bank on Saturday posted over two-fold rise in net profit to Rs 343 crore in the March 2022 quarter on the back of strong core operating income and lower provisioning for bad loans.

The private sector lender had reported a net profit of Rs 128 crore in the same quarter of the previous fiscal.

The total income during the January-March quarter of 2021-22 rose to Rs 5,384.88 crore from Rs 4,811.18 crore in the same period of FY21, IDFC First Bank said in a regulatory filing.

"The net profit for Q4-FY22 grew by 168 per cent to Rs 343 crore from Rs 128 crore in Q4 FY21, driven by strong growth in core operating income and lower provisioning," the bank said.

The net interest income (NII) during the quarter increased by 36 per cent to Rs 2,669 crore, while fee and other income jumped 40 per cent to Rs 841 crore.

Provisions other than tax came down by 36 per cent to Rs 369 crore in the March 2022 quarter, the lender said, adding asset quality at a gross and net level reduced by 45 and 33 basis points to 3.40 per cent and 1.53 per cent, respectively.

"Our core operating profit for Q4 22 has more than doubled (up 106 per cent) to Rs 836 crore as compared to Rs 405 crore in Q4 FY 21. This shows the power of the business model we are building. Our PAT is up 168 per cent year-on-year from Rs 128 crore to Rs 343 crore," V Vaidyanathan, Managing Director and CEO, IDFC FIRST Bank, said.

However, the net profit for 2021-22 fell 68 per cent to Rs 145 crore from Rs 452 crore in 2020-21, due to higher provisioning in the first quarter of FY22 to manage the COVID-19 second wave impact on its assets, IDFC First Bank said.

The total income during the year rose to Rs 20,394.72 crore from Rs 18,179.19 crore.

The NII for FY22 grew by 32 per cent to Rs 9,706 crore, from Rs 7,380 crore in FY21. Fee and other income grew by 66 per cent to Rs 2,691 crore from Rs 1,622 crore.

The lender said that it has not utilised the Covid provision during the quarter and carries Covid provisions of Rs 165 crore as of March 31, 2022.

"The bank is broadly on track to meet the asset quality and credit cost guidance. Based on the improved portfolio performance indicators, the bank is confident to achieve its credit cost guidance for FY23 at nearly 1.5 per cent on funded assets," it said.

The bank said it is seeing the impact of the second Covid wave to be diminishing gradually and this improvement is showing in the improvement in asset quality.

One infrastructure loan (Mumbai Toll Road account), which became NPA during Q1 FY22, continued to pay its dues partially and the principal outstanding was reduced by Rs 25 crore during the quarter to Rs 794 crore as of March 31, 2022, the lender said.

Gradually, the cash flows of this account are likely to regularise, as traffic volumes on the Mumbai road come back to normalcy.

"While the account is NPA as of now, we expect to collect our dues and expect eventual losses on this account to be not material in due course," it noted.

"On the overall bank level, but for this one infrastructure account, which we hope to recover in due course without any economic loss, the GNPA (gross non-performing assets) and NNPA (net NPAs) of the bank would have been 3.04 per cent and 1.02 per cent, respectively, as on March 31, 2022, and the PCR (provision coverage ratio) of the bank would have been 77 per cent, including technical write-off," the bank added.

Among others, the bank's CASA (current account savings account) deposits posted a growth of 11 per cent to reach Rs 51,170 crore as of March 31, 2022, from Rs 45,896 crore in the year-ago period.

Current account deposits now contribute to 18.29 per cent of total CASA as compared to 11.80 per cent by the end of March 2021, it said.

Vaidyanathan said in the retail business, which is one of the key drivers of growth, NPA continues to reduce over the last four quarters.

"Our retail gross NPA sharply reduced from 4.01 per cent in FY21 to 2.63 per cent in FY22, and net NPA reduced from 1.90 per cent to 1.15 per cent. Based on internal analysis, we are comfortably on our way to reduce retail GNPA and NNPA to 2 per cent and less than 1 per cent, respectively, as guided earlier," he added.