Axis Bank Reports Net Loss Of Rs 1,388 Crore For Q4 On Heightened Provisions

On Tuesday, Axis Bank posted a net loss of Rs 1,387.78 crore for the March ended quarter against a net profit of Rs 1,505.06 crore in the same period of the last year. The losses were largely due to a significant increase in provisions and contingencies which rose by 185 percent on a year-on-year basis to Rs 7,730.02 crore for the period under review.

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Operating profit of the private bank rose by 17 percent in the January-March period to Rs 5,851 crore from a year ago. Net Interest Income for the fourth quarter was 19 percent higher at Rs 6,808 crore when compared to the same period last year. Net interest margin was 3.55 percent.

Axis Bank reported a 19 percent YoY increase in total deposits on a quarterly average basis. The Bank said that it added 478 branches to its domestic network in the financial year 2019-20.

Its net non-performing assets (NPA) declined to 1.56 percent from 2.09 percent in the December quarter. During the quarter, the Bank has made provisions of Rs 7,730 crore, which includes Rs 3,000 crore provision related to COVID-19, taking the overall additional provisions held to Rs 5,983 crore.

"The overall additional provisions held by the Bank towards various contingencies together with the standard asset provisions, translate to a standard asset coverage of 1.3 percent at March 31, 2020," the bank said.

In a separate stock exchange filing on Tuesday, the private bank said that its board has approved authorised it "to borrow/ raise funds in Indian Currency / Foreign Currency by the issue of debt instruments including but not limited long term bonds, nonconvertible debentures, perpetual debt instruments and Tier II Capital Bonds or such other debt securities as may be permitted under RBI guidelines, from time to time" to raise up to Rs 35,000 crore.

Shares of Axis Bank closed 6.61 percent higher at Rs 455.55 on BSE on Tuesday, ahead of the results.