ICICI Bank Q3 net falls by 13.4%

Net profit drop due to absence of treasury income is still smaller than anticipated.

ICICI Bank said Thursday its net profit for the October-December period slipped to INR11.01 billion ($238.31 million) from INR12.72 billion ($275.32 million) a year earlier. The profit drop was smaller than the average estimate of 12 analysts in a Dow Jones Newswires poll pegged at INR10.38 billion ($224.6 million).

According to the Wall Street Journal, the bank's net interest income rose 3.4 percent to INR20.58 billion ($445.27 million) from INR19.90 billion ($430.55 million) as signs of economic recovery boosted demand for loans and reduced its cost of funds.

The bank's other income—which includes treasury gains, fee and commissions—plunged 33.5 percent to INR16.73 billion ($362.10 million) from INR25.15 billion ($544.37 million) in the absence of any treasury income. Fee income grew a modest 5.6 percent to INR14.22 billion ($307.79 million) from INR13.47 billion ($291.56 million).

ICICI Bank Managing Director and Chief Executive Chanda Kochhar said that "in a way this is the toughest it can get (absence of treasury gains). Going forward, there could be some treasury opportunities, but also there would be increase in fee income."