“ICICI Bank’s core performance came a shade below our expectations – NII grew at moderate pace (14.5% YoY) on back of flat NIM (2bps YoY) despite loan book grew at 16.7% YoY. PAT came ahead of expectation largely on back of strong other income which also included Rs.2.22 bn worth of exchange rate gains on repatriation of retained earnings from overseas branches. Addition to impaired assets came slightly higher than the previous quarter - restructured book has swollen by 2100 cr while fresh slippage came at Rs.12.41 cr. Net NPA remained stable at 82bps although coverage slipped by 140bps QoQ. We maintain our preference for ICICI bank in private sector banking space.”
