Private sector lender Bandhan Bank on Thursday reported a consolidated net of Rs 972 crore for the September quarter, which includes the numbers of Gruh.
Finance, and outlined affordable housing loans as its focus area going forward.
The Kolkata-headquartered lender had a net income of Rs 488 crore in the year-ago period, but the numbers are not comparable as the reporting quarter reflects the performance of Gruh as well.
Managing director and chief executive CS Ghosh said it took nine months to complete the merger with Gruh and the bank, which has its roots in the micro-lending segment, will now focus more on affordable housing loans.
Loan book grew 37 percent for the bank standalone and 92 percent if Gruh is included, Ghosh said, adding the merger has resulted in the share of micro-loans to come down to 61 percent while the rest is in mortgages, SMESs and microfinance lenders.
Apart from affordable housing, it will also focus on the small businesses segment, Ghosh said.
The bank continues to be under restrictions for branch expansion from RBI as the promoter shareholding being at a high of 61 percent, and Ghosh affirmed commitment to meet the regulatory expectations.
However, chief financial officer Sunil Samdani said it is not tracking any inorganic growth opportunities, which can help reduce the promoter stake.
It is also not eyeing any portfolio buys and will be looking to grow its loan-book organically, he said.
Ghosh did not reply to a question on by when and how would he meet the RBI's requirement to get the stake down to 40 percent, because of which the bank is under restrictions.
For the reporting quarter, net interest income printed at Rs 1,529 crore and net interest margin slid 2 percentage points to 8.15 percent.
Samdani attributed a part of the NIM slide to the low margin housing loans, and also to carrying of excess liquidity to the tune of Rs 7,000 crore ahead of the merger to meet regulatory requirements like paying off some debts.
Non-interest income came in at Rs 361 crore, while the share of the low-cost current and savings account balances slid to 33 percent of deposits due to the inclusion of Gruh's deposit base.
From an asset quality perspective, gross-non performing assets came in at 1.76 percent for the quarter on fresh slippages of Rs 183 crore and the bank management said there is no stress situation which has built up.
The bank scrip gained 2.62 percent at Rs 570.45 on the BSE as against a correction of 0.10 percent in the benchmark.
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