ICICI Bank's UK subsidiary posts Rs 160 crore loss

Amidst criticism of its exposure to 'toxic' assets abroad, India's largest private sector lender, ICICI Bank, on Monday said its UK subsidiary has registered a USD 35 million (around Rs 160 crore) net loss for the half year ended September 30 on account of higher provisioning in its investments abroad.
"After making the required provisioning on our investments abroad, our UK subsidiary has made a net loss of USD 35 million...(however) as on September 30, the net NPAs of this unit is zero," ICICI Bank's Joint Managing Director, Chanda Kochhar, said in Mumbai.
The UK subsidiary has a total deposit base of USD 4.9 billion as at end-September, out of which 39 per cent constituted term deposits, Kochhar said.
For the second quarter, the lender posted a marginal rise of 1.1 per cent in its net profit at Rs 1,014 crore from Rs 1,003 crore in the same quarter in the previous fiscal while the total income rose to Rs 9,712 crore as compared to Rs 9,588 crore.
In the face of challenging market conditions, the bank has been closely monitoring all segments of its operations to maintain credit quality and sustain growth in key sectors, Kochhar said.
"We are monitoring all portfolios very closely. Retail lending still constitutes 55 per cent of our total advances...We haven't seen any major changes (in bad assets) in the last quarter," Kochhar said.
Meanwhile, the bank has been trying to reduce its dependence on bulk deposits and focus more on Current Account, Savings Account deposits (CASA) that grew to 30 per cent as at end-September from 25 per cent in the year-ago period, Kochhar said.
"Moving ahead, the focus would be on maintaining the growth in CASA, net interest margin and managing NPA levels," Kochhar said.
ICICI Bank's net NPAs, as on September 30, grew to 1.8 per cent from 1.74 per cent in the corresponding period in the previous year, largely due to a "contraction of portfolios rather than rising bad loans," Kochhar said.
The bank and its subsidiaries have already exited their no-India linked credit derivatives portfolio, Kochhar said.
ICICI Bank's core operating profit rose to Rs 2,437 crore in Q2-2009, from Rs 1,712 crore in year-ago period while its operating expenses dropped by 12 per cent due to its cost-rationalisation measures.
The capital adequacy ratio of the bank, as at end-September stood at 14.01 per cent.

source http://www.financialexpress.com/news/icici-banks-uk-subsidiary-posts-rs-160-cr-loss/378517/