RBL Bank profit rises 46% to Rs 294 crore in Q2 on healthy loan book growth

RBL Bank on Saturday reported 46 per cent rise in annual profit for quarter ended September 30 on the back of strong growth in its loan portfolio.

RBL Bank's net profit in second quarter of current financial year came in at Rs 294 crore as against Rs 201.55 crore, during the same period last year, marking an upside of 46 per cent.

Its net interest income or difference between interest paid and interest earned rose 26 per cent to Rs 1,475 crore from Rs 1,174 crore in the year ago period. The bank's net interest margin (NIM) improved 52 basis points (bps) to 5.54 per cent from 5.02 per cent in the corresponding period last year.

During the quarter ended September 30, 2023, the Bank received income tax orders relating to matter under appeal resulting in write-back of tax provision for earlier years of Rs 222.92 crore (pre-tax of Rs 297.89 crore), the bank said in a stock exchange filing.

“The Bank has prudently used this write-back of tax provision to build contingent buffers of 100 bps created on Credit Card & Microfinance Advances to prudently build reserves and strengthen the balance sheet; amounting to Rs 252 crore, modifying existing provisioning policy in credit cards to provide fully on NPA cases at 120 days as against the existing policy of 180 days and in aggregate, the Bank took additional provision of Rs 300 crore on account of above,” RBL Bank said.

RBL Bank registered healthy loan growth as its net advances book grew 21 per cent annually and 4 per cent sequentially to Rs 76,324 crore. Retail advances book grew 35 per cent annually and 8 per cent sequentially to Rs 44,092 crore while retail disbursement for second quarter came in at Rs 4,300 crore.

Housing loans grew 43 per cent annually and rural vehicle finance grew 167 per cent.

Gross non-performing (NPA) ratio improved to 3.12% per cent versus 3.22 per cent in the previous quarter.

Net NPA ratio improved to 0.78 per cent from 1 per cent in the previous quarter.

As of September 30, 2023, the Bank has 528 bank branches and 1,206 business correspondent branches, of which 296 are banking outlets. RBL Finserve Limited (“RBL Finserve”), a 100 per cent subsidiary of the Bank, accounts for 882 business correspondent branches.

RBL Bank shares ended 0.85 per cent lower at Rs 243.65 ahead of its earnings announcement.