INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Shares of Bandhan Bank rose as much as 7.1 per cent in afternoon trade.Bandhan Bank Ltd posted a 47.3 percent jump in second-quarter profit
on Wednesday, helped by higher interest earned, and reports said the bank was looking at options to comply with Reserve Bank of India norms
on shareholder stake.The results come days after the RBI barred the Kolkata-based lender from opening new branches and froze its chief
executive's salary for failing to bring down its main shareholder's stake to below 40 percent.Bandhan remains committed to maintaining
compliance as per RBI norms, and there are three options available to bring down the shareholder's stake including an offer for sale, ET NOW
reported.Net profit rose to 4.88 billion rupees ($65.8 million) for the quarter ended Sept
30, from 3.31 billion rupees a year earlier, the bank said in a statement.Interest earned rose 43.3 percent to 16.06 billion rupees, while
net interest margin, the difference between interest paid and earned - a key gauge of profitability, rose to 10.3 percent."We expect the
momentum to continue in the second half of FY 2018-19," said CEO Chandra Shekhar Ghosh in a statement.Gross bad loans as a percentage of
total loans stood at 1.29 percent by end-September, compared with 1.26 percent in the previous quarter and 1.43 percent a year
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