Axis Bank Q4 NII Jumps Nearly 17% YoY To Rs. 8,819 Crore, Net Profit Rises Over 50% To Rs Rs 4,118 Crore

One of the country’s largest private sector bank– Axis Bank, on Thursday announced a 54 percent year-on-year growth in standalone profit to Rs 4,118 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2022, from Rs 2,677 crore reported in the same period last year, the bank said in its BSE filing.

The private lender reported a 16.7 percent year-on-year jump in net interest income (NII), interest earned minus interest expended, to Rs 8,819 crore. It stood at ₹7,555 crore in the year-ago period.

Advances reckoned at Rs 7.07 lakh crore as of March 2022, up 15 percent YoY, with retail loans (reflecting 57 percent of net advances) growing at 21 percent YoY and the corporate loan book growth was just 4 percent as against the corresponding period last fiscal.
Provisions and contingencies in the March-ending quarter slipped by 54.4 percent YoY to Rs 987.2 crore, whereas sequentially, it fell 26 percent.

The bank said it has not touched Covid provisions during the quarter. It has cumulative provisions (standard + additional other than NPA) of Rs 12,428 crore as of March 31, 2022.

Credit cost for the fourth quarter stood at 0.32 percent, down 116 bps YoY and 12 bps QoQ.

The private lender’s asset quality improved notably, with gross non-performing assets as a percentage of gross advances shrinking 35 bps sequentially to 2.82 percent in the March-ended quarter. The Net NPA ratio during the same period under review dipped 18 bps to 0.73 percent.

“Gross slippages during the quarter were Rs 3,981 crore, which were lower compared to Rs 4,147 crore in Q3FY22. Recoveries and upgrades from NPAs during the quarter were Rs 3,763 crore, which resulted in net slippages in NPAs (before write-offs) for the quarter at Rs 218 crore, down sharply compared to Rs 860 crore in the previous quarter,” said the private sector lender.

Recoveries from written-off accounts amounted to Rs 719 crore. Therefore, overall, “the slippages were lower than recoveries, upgrades, and collections from written-off accounts,” said the bank. During the quarter, Axis bank wrote off NPAs worth Rs 1,696 crore.
Non-interest income (other income) jumped 19.3% to Rs 4,223 crore in the March-ended quarter.

Pre-provision operating profit was Rs 6,466 crore, up 12.7 percent YoY.

In fiscal 2022, Axis Bank recorded a 98 percent jump in profit at Rs 13,025 crore and a 13 percent rise in net interest income as against the previous fiscal.