Backed by robust growth in net interest income and fee-based income, HDFC Bank registered a net profit of Rs 527.98 crore for the second quarter ended September 30, 2008 as against Rs 368.48 crore, during the corresponding period last year, showing an increase of 43.3%.

The bank said that the results for the quarter are not comparable with that of the corresponding period last year as the merger between Centurion Bank of Punjab and HDFC Bank became effective during May 2008. Total income of the bank rose to Rs 4,634.32 crore as against Rs 2,845.14 crore last year.

Net interest income for the quarter ended September 2008 increased by 60.5% to Rs 1,866.5 crore, driven by average asset growth of 52.5% and a net interest margin (NIM) of around 4.2% as against 4% for the quarter ended September 30, 2007.

?We hope to maintain a healthy margin of 3.90-4.2%, despite a high interest rate scenario,? said Paresh Sukthankar, executive director with HDFC Bank.

Other income for the quarter ended September 30, 2008 stood at Rs 643.1 crore as against Rs 482.4 crore for the same quarter last year. Fee and commission was the main contributor to other income for the quarter, increased by 49.9% to Rs 587.3 crore.

The other two major components of other income were foreign exchange and derivatives revenues of Rs 67.5 crore, as against Rs 38.7 crore, as of September 30, 2007, the bank said.

Provisions and contingencies for the quarter were Rs 346 crore as against Rs 289.4 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2007. The bank provided Rs 248.8 crore for taxation. Its capital adequacy ratio stood at 11.4%.

The total balance sheet size increased 41.3% from Rs 121,545 crore as of September 2007 to Rs 171,765 crore as on September 2008. Total deposits were Rs 133,781 crore, an increase of 46.9% from September 2007.

?We plan to keep our CASA within the range of 43-45% along with a deposit and credit growth of 25-30% each. While we have seen some moderation in credit, we hope to have a robust credit growth,? said Sukthankar.

?Our corporate business is growing faster than the retail business. There has been some moderation in the retail book, owing to high interest rates. Today, our wholesale business is stronger than our retail portfolio,? Sukthankar added.

Portfolio quality as of September 30, 2008 remained healthy with gross non-performing assets at 1.57% of gross advances and net non-performing assets at 0.57% of net advances.