Kotak Mahindra Bank 3rd quarter profit: The lender reported an increase of 23% rise on yearKotak Mahindra Bank, country's fifth-biggest lender by market capitalisation, reported on Monday a 23 per cent rise in third-quarter net profit, helped by higher interest income and a write-back of provisions made for mark-to-market losses.
Net profit of private sector bank came in at Rs 1,291 crore ($181.20 million) for three months to December 31, compared to Rs 1,053 crore a year earlier and roughly in line with analysts' average estimates of a profit of Rs 1,271 crore, according to data from Refinitiv.While provisions for bad loans climbed over 50 per cent to Rs 255 crore in quarter, bank got a write-back in amount of Rs 272 crore for mark-to-market losses.Asset quality improved, with gross bad loans as a percentage of total loans standing at 2.07 per cent at end of December.
That compared with 2.15 per cent in previous quarter and 2.31 per cent a year earlier.Interest earned rose nearly 25 per cent to Rs 6,250 crore in quarter, while net interest margin - difference between interest paid and earned and a key measure of profitability - came in at 4.33 per cent, compared to 4.27 percent in year-ago quarter.The strong results came despite lender being involved in a tussle with Reserve Bank of India (RBI) over chief executive Uday Kotak's stake in bank.The RBI has asked CEO Mr Kotak, country's richest banker, to cut his 29.73 per cent stake as at September 30 to meet shareholding norms for private sector banks and ruled an issue of preference shares by bank towards that goal did not meet its requirements.
The bank has challenged RBI's decision in court.($1 = Rs 71.24)