MUMBAI, May 2: Private sector lender Bandhan Bank
Thursday reported a 67 percent growth in March quarter net
income at Rs 651 crore on higher non-core income which almost
doubled, coupled with a faster clip on the assets side.
The microlender turned commercial bank, whose
promoters were struggling to bring down his holding in the
bank in accordance with the Reserve Bank norms, will go for an
offer-for-sale to reduce the holding, promoter and managing
director CS Ghosh told reporters here.
He also said an acquisition, which can serve as an
alternative to reduce promoter holding, is off the table for
the time being. However, Ghosh did not share a timeline by
when he expects the sale process will be completed.
It can be noted that the promoters were unable to
bring down their holdings to RBIs insistence of 40 percent
last year, which resulted in restrictions on branch expansion.
Later it merged with small mortgages focused Gruh Finance,
helping it lower the stake by over 20 percent to 61 percent.
For the reporting quarter, core net interest income
grew 45 percent on a 38 percent loan growth and expansion of
margins to 10.69 percent as against 9.32 percent.
The bank’s non-interest income grew 91.13 percent to
Rs 388 crore for the reporting quarter, which was the biggest
boost to the bottomline.
The gross non-performing assets ratio grew to 2.04
from 1.25 in the year-ago period, which the management
indicated was due to the exposure to bankrupt infra lender
IL&FS that was already flagged three months ago.
It has an outstanding of Rs 385 crore to IL&FS which
has turned dud, while Rs 25 crore to a group company engaged
in skill development is still standard.
The bank has taken 100 percent provisions for the IL&
FS exposure in the preceding quarter itself, Ghosh said,
adding the bank is not looking at re-entering the large ticket
loans segment, having burnt its fingers with IL&FS.
The legacy micro-loans segment accounts for 86 percent
of the loan book at present and Ghosh said the intent is to
bring it down to 75 percent over the next three years.
A bulk of the necessary approvals for the Gruh merger
are in place and the bank now awaits NCLT’s and the subsequent
shareholders’ nod before the two entities get merged. But
refused to offer a timeline for the completion of the process.
About the plans for Gruh parent HDFCs stake at 15
percent in the bank post-merger, Ghosh said he understands
that it has the nod to keep it at 9.9 percent but said only
the mortgage major can clarify on what happens to the
additional stake.
Ghosh said Bandhan has the regulatory nod for opening
17 branches, which will be done by June, but indicated that
with close to 1,000 branches already it will not be very
aggressive on opening new branches.
The Bandhan counter closed over 4.3 percent at Rs 624
on the BSE as against a marginal correction in the benchmark.
(PTI)
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