Axis Bank Q4 net up 33.5 per cent

Mumbai: Driven by a sharp rise in interest income, private sector lender Axis Bank today announced 33.5 per cent rise in net profit at over Rs 1,020 crore in the quarter to March and sounded bullish about growth this fiscal.

During the quarter, the bank saw its fee income from large and mid-corporate growing 68 per cent, treasury by 79 per cent and retail by 45 per cent.

The total interest income rose to Rs 4,366.6 crore in the quarter against Rs 2,988.4 crore in Q4 2009-10.

Though there has been a marginal deceleration in the net interest margin (NIM) in Q4, which came down to 3.44 per cent against 3.81 per cent and to 3.65 per cent from 3.75 per cent for the full year, a 48.3 per cent jump in total income to Rs 5,817 crore in Q4, coupled with a decline in stressed assets, could take care of the decline.

Axis bank had a net profit of Rs 764.8 crore in Q4 of FY10.

"We are hopeful of improving upon the robust numbers in FY11 in the current fiscal. I expect advances growth to be around 25 per cent, which would be above industry average. A similar growth is expected on deposit front too," executive director and chief financial officer Somnath Sengupta said in a conference.

On the Enam deal, Sengupta said, they had an in-principle approval from RBI, under which, the bank was asked not to allow any Enam shareholders who may buy into Axis shares a position on the board of the bank.

On whether Enam chairman Vallabh Bansali would be on the board, he said no call has been taken on this. He also ruled out any renegotiation of the price it paid for the deal, which was questioned by RBI, saying the regulator has not told them anything about it.

Source: Financial Express