RBL Bank Shares Plunge 14% on Earnings Miss

New Delhi, Oct 21 (PTI) Shares of RBL Bank slumped 14 per cent on Monday morning after the firm posted a 24 per cent decline in net profit in the September quarter to Rs 223 crore on asset quality challenges emanating from credit card and microlending books.

The company's stock plunged 14 per cent to hit a 52-week low of Rs 176.50 apiece on both the BSE and NSE.

RBL Bank announced the September quarter earnings on Saturday.

The private sector lender had reported a post-tax net profit of Rs 294 crore in the year-ago period, and Rs 372 crore in the preceding June quarter.

RBL Bank Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director R Subramaniakumar told reporters that the stress in the microfinance book is due to industry-wide issues, but the same on the credit-card front, where the regulator has been flagging risks for the industry, is on account of internal aspects.

A senior bank official said the lender expects the challenges on credit cards that are arising out of a transition, to take loan collections in-house from being outsourced to a partner earlier, will settle by the end of the third quarter, but the same on microlending may persist longer.

The fresh slippages nearly doubled to Rs 1,026 crore during the quarter, and nearly 70 per cent of the additions came from the credit card book, while the rest were from microfinance, an official explained.