ICICI Posts Steepest Profit Fall in More Than 6 Years

April 25 (Bloomberg) -- ICICI Bank Ltd., India’s second- largest by assets, reported the steepest fall in quarterly profit in more than six years as it set aside more funds for bad debt and curbed loans to avoid defaults.
Net income fell 35 percent to 7.44 billion rupees ($149 million) in the three months ended March 31, from 11.5 billion rupees a year earlier, according to an e-mailed statement today. The profit compares with the 7.3 billion rupee median estimate of five analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News.
Chief Executive Officer K.V. Kamath, heading to the end of a 14-year tenure, is battling a slump in loans and deposits as the economy falters and investments overseas, including holdings in bankrupt Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., soured. ICICI’s advances declined 3 percent in the year to March, even as total bank credit in India climbed 17.5 percent.
“They have a strategy in place to turnaround, but it will take at least a year for them to return to average growth,” Vaibhav Agrawal, the banking analyst at Angel Broking Ltd. in Mumbai, said by telephone today. He recommends clients buy ICICI stock.
The decline in profit is only the second time ICICI’s quarterly earnings have fallen in more than six years.