ICICI Bank 4Q Net Profit Jumps, But Bad Loans Also Up

ICICI Bank Ltd. (532174.BY), India's largest private-sector lender, said Wednesday its fourth-quarter net profit almost tripled from a year earlier, driven by its retail business, even as its bad loans jumped.

Chief Executive Chanda Kochhar said part of the increase in bad loans was due to one account in the cement sector and that the bank expected non-performing assets to be significantly lower in this financial year.

ICICI Bank's net profit rose to 20.25 billion rupees ($315 million) in the three months ended March 31, from INR7.02 billion rupees a year earlier. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had estimated the bank's income would be 22.04 billion rupees.

The bank's net interest income rose 10% to INR59.62 from INR54.04 a year earlier.

Gross bad loans jumped 66% to INR426 billion from INR257 billion rupees a year earlier. Net non-performing assets rose to 4.89% of the total from 2.67%.

Shares of ICICI Bank Ltd. ended 1% lower on the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex. The results were released after markets closed.

-Write to Corinne Abrams at corinne.abrams@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 03, 2017 10:21 ET (14:21 GMT)