Mumbai, Feb 12: IndusInd Bank has clocked 31 per cent growth in its net profit during the first three quarters of the current financial year. The new generation private sector bank has posted a net profit of Rs 76.62 crore in April-December 1997 against Rs 58.52 crore in the corresponding period the previous year.The IndusInd stock made a smart recovery on the local bourses to close at Rs 34.60 on the National Stock Exchange registering a net gain of 2.67 per cent over Wednesday's close of Rs 33.70. The stock opened at a premium of 0.59 per cent at Rs 33.90, touched an intra-day high of Rs 35.75 to finally close at Rs 34.60 with a huge volume of 3.05 lakh shares. The deposits of the bank, which stood at Rs 2,191 crore as of December 31, 1996, increased to Rs 3,793 crore during the first three quarters of 1997-98, indicating a rise of 73 per cent.
Advances during the same period grew by 30 per cent from Rs 1,801 crore to Rs 2,352 crore. The overall business levels of the bank grew by 22 per cent duringApril-December 1997.
IndusInd has been able to maintain its operating expenses at 10 per cent during the first nine months of the financial year. "The bank's ratio which is in the 10-11 per cent range is perhaps the lowest in the entire banking industry," said S Solomon Raj, managing director of IndusInd Bank.
As part of its expansion plans, the bank plans to open two more branches by the end of the current fiscal.
This would take up the total tally of branches to 22. As of December 31, 1996, IndusInd had only 12 branches.
"The bank intends to go slow on disbursements as it shall adopt a selective approach in catering to only high credit-worthy borrowers," said Raj.
The bank's credit deposit ratio during the period under review fell to 63 per cent from 82 per cent in the year-ago period.
Analysts have pointed out that the fall in the CD ratio of the bank is the reason for its investments shooting up.
Investments which stood at Rs 720 crore as of December 31, 1996, increased to Rs 1,509 crore, anincrease of 109 per cent. IndusInd's networth has also increased by nearly Rs 200 crore during the period under review from Rs 290 crore to Rs 489 crore. This was primarily due to the recent Rs 180 crore public issue of the bank.
It now has the highest net worth among the new private sector banks.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
