Axis Bank reports 22% jump in quarterly net profit

Axis Bank reports 22% jump in quarterly net profitAxis Bank's net profit jumped 22 per cent to Rs 1,124 crore in the three months through September 2012 year-on-year, thanks to a strong rise in retail lending & fee income.

Net profit for the private sector lender's first half was also up 22 per cent at Rs 2,277 crore year-on-year.

Net Interest Income (NII) jumped 21 per cent from Rs 3,731 crore during first half of financial year of 2011-12 to settle at Rs 4,507 crore during first half financial year 2012-13. For second quarter of current financial year, NII was Rs 2,327 crore, as compared with Rs 2,007 crore in the corresponding period of previous year.

Kashyap Jhaveri, an analyst with Emkay Global Finance, said the bank's NII as well as net profit were in line with consensus projections encouraged by one-off capital gains.

Net interest margin jumped from 3.37 per cent in the first quarter to 46 per cent in second quarter of the current year. The lender also said that it had cumulative restructured assets worth Rs 4,068 crore during the September quarter, of which it restructured assets worth Rs 323 crore.

Balance sheet crossed the Rs 3 lakh crore mark to Rs 3,02,681 crore at the end of the September quarter, for the first time in the bank's history. Savings deposits jumped 20 per cent, while retail term deposits climbed 39 per cent year-on-year.

Axis Bank also announced the appointment of V Srinivasan and Somnath Sengupta to the bank's board as executive directors, with effect from Monday.