Agencies
Mumbai
Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd, India's fourth-biggest private sector lender by assets, reported a better-than-expected 28 percent increase in quarterly profit and a stable bad loan ratio, sending its shares up more than 4 percent.
Kotak Mahindra, which last November agreed to buy smaller rival ING Vysya for $2.4 billion in what was the country's biggest bank takeover, said net profit was Rs 5.7 billion ($87.5 million) for its fiscal second quarter to Sept. 30 from Rs 4.45 billion reported a year earlier.
Analysts had expected a net profit of Rs 4.38 billion, according to data compiled by Thomson Reuters.
Gross bad loans as a percentage of total loans were 2.35 percent, compared with 2.31 percent in the June quarter. The bank said year-ago numbers were not comparable since ING Vysya operations were combined effective April 1 this year.
Kotak Mahindra has previously guided for higher credit costs this fiscal year as it makes more provisions related to the acquisition.
By 1:20 p.m., the stock was trading 3 percent higher in a Mumbai market down 0.1 percent.
