Yes Bank Net Profit Surges 63% in Q4: Provisions Decline

Mumbai, Apr 19 (PTI) Private sector lender Yes Bank on Saturday reported a 63 per cent jump in the March quarter net profit to Rs 738 crore, helped by a decline in provisions.

The city-headquartered lender reported a 92.3 per cent increase in net profit to Rs 2,406 crore in fiscal year 2024-25.

The core net interest income was up 5.7 per cent at Rs 2,276 crore for the quarter, on the back of a 8.1 per cent in advances and a 0.1 per cent expansion in the net interest margin at 2.5 per cent.

Standalone total income increased to Rs 9,355.39 crore in January-March quarter from Rs 9,015.77 crore in the year-ago period, according to an exchange filing.

Amid the wide ranging concerns on deposit growth, the bank reported a 6.8 per cent expansion on this front.

The bank's managing director and chief executive Prashant Kumar told reporters that it will target a loan growth between 12-15 per cent depending on the macroeconomic conditions, and the deposit growth will be higher than the loan growth.

The share of the low-cost current and saving account balances increased to 34.3 per cent from the 30.9 per cent in the year-ago period.

Yes Bank reduced its offerings on the savings account by up to 2 per cent, and the minimum interest rate has now come down to 3 per cent on the product, he said, adding that the bank is confident of the Casa ratio not being impacted because of it.

He said the bank opened 37 branches in FY25, and plans to add 80 branches per year in each of the next five years.

The non-interest income increased 10.9 per cent to Rs 1,739 crore during the reporting quarter.

Overall provisions were down 32.5 per cent on year to Rs 318 crore, and proved to be a big contributor to the profit growth.

Kumar said the retail assets degrew during the quarter as part of a conscious strategy to stay off from car and home loans and focus on better yielding and safer assets.

The bank is targeting a loan growth of up to 12 per cent in retail in the new fiscal, which will be driven by loans against property, business loans and used cars financing, he said.

On the asset quality front, a bulk Rs 1,115 crore of the overall Rs 1,348 crore in fresh slippages came from retail front, which included Rs 57 crore from rural, Rs 93 crore from small businesses, Rs 184 crore on credit card and Rs 780 crore on other retail assets which is split equally between secured and unsecured assets, Kumar said.

He said the stress on the credit cards portfolio, where the industry had been witnessing some issues, seems to have plateaued now and the credit costs will come down on this over the next 2-3 quarters.

The bank's credit deposit ratio reduced to 86.5 per cent from over 88 per cent in the year-ago period, and Kumar said it will continue to come down to around 85 per cent level.

The bank's overall capital adequacy stood at 15.6 per cent as of March, and the core buffer was 13.5 per cent. Kumar said there is no need for fresh capital.