Indian private sector lender Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd posted a nearly 20 percent increase in third-quarter profit on Friday, helped by higher interest and fee income and as bad loans dropped. Net profit rose to 10.53 billion rupees ($165.11 million) in the quarter ended Dec. 31, from 8.80 billion rupees a year earlier, the country’s fourth-largest private bank by assets said in a statement. Analysts on average had expected a net profit of 10.69 billion rupees, according to Thomson Reuters data. Gross bad loans as a percentage of total loans stood at 2.31 percent at end-December, compared with 2.47 percent in the previous quarter and 2.42 percent in the same period a year ago. Net interest income rose about 17 percent to 23.94 billion rupees.
