Axis Bank net up 54%, asset quality improves

Beating Street estimates, Axis Bank on Thursday reported a 54% year-on-year (y-o-y) rise in net profit at 4,118 crore in the quarter ended March, 2022, compared with2,677 crore in the same quarter last year.

The bank’s asset quality showed improvement with the gross non-performing assets (GNPAs) for the quarter falling to 2.82% of total advances compared with 3.17% in the December quarter and 3.7% in the March quarter last year. In value terms, the gross NPAs declined to 21,822.32 crore, from25,314.84 crore.

Net NPAs (bad loans), too, came down to 0.73% (5,512.16 crore) compared to1.05% (6,993.52 crore). Thus, the provisions for bad loans and contingencies were trimmed to987.23 crore for the reported quarter from 2,167.34 crore put aside by the lender in the year-ago period. The private lender said its net interest income grew 17% y-o-y to8,819 crore. Net interest margin for the quarter came in at 3.49%. Total income rose to 21,999 crore against19,035 crore in the same period of 2020-21.

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For the full 2021-22, the net profit nearly doubled to 13,025.48 crore from6,588.50 crore in 2020-21. Its income increased to 82,597.37 crore from75,609.83 crore. On a consolidated basis, the net profit in Q4FY22 grew by 50% to 4,434 crore from2,960.40 crore a year ago. The total income rose to 23,000.69 crore from19,850.11 crore. Shares of Axis Bank closed at Rs 779.95 apiece on BSE, up 1.81% from the previous close.

Amitabh Chaudhry, MD & CEO, said the bank has made steady progress across all dimensions of its business. “Considerable work has gone into strengthening our core, building granularity while at the same time ensuring that we are well-positioned to grow and leverage the opportunities opening up, hopefully with the pandemic behind us,” he said.

Choudhry said the Citi deal is one of its kind and should pivot Axis Bank into a premium franchise in line with its strategic objectives. “With smart products, services, partnerships, and talent on our side, we look forward to further building on our performance in the new financial year,” he said.