Axis Bank made a net profit of Rs 432.38 crore in the second quarter of 2017, the private lender said in its earnings report released on Tuesday. This marks a 35% year-on-year rise in the figure – the bank had reported a net profit of Rs 319.08 crore in the July-September quarter in 2016.
However, the net profit was well below analyst estimates of Rs 1,318 crore, according to BloombergQuint.
Axis Bank’s asset quality worsened in the second quarter, with gross non-performing assets increasing to 5.90% from 5.03% the previous quarter. The lender’s NPAs rose in the last nine quarters.
There was also a difference between the bank’s internal assessment of bad loans and the Reserve Bank of India’s figures for the 2016-’17 financial year. The private lender had classified loans worth Rs 21,280 crore as NPAs at the end of the financial year, but the RBI pegged it at Rs 26,913 crore.
Axis Bank said that this difference was because nine of its accounts were classified as standard assets across most consortium banks till June 30. Its outstanding dues to these accounts, which stands at Rs 4867 crore, have now been classified as bad loans, reported BloombergQuint.
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