HDFC Bank has reported a 30.17 per cent rise in net profit at Rs 107.28 crore (Rs 1.07 billion) for the first quarter ended June 30, 2003, compared to Rs 82.41 crore (Rs 824.1 million) posted in same period the previous fiscal.

Total income in the period under review also increased to Rs 717.19 crore (Rs 560.48 crore in Q1 of last year), the bank said in a release on Monday.

Net interest income grew by Rs 96.6 crore (Rs 966 million) to Rs 285 crore (Rs 2.85 billion), driven by average asset growth of 29.7 per cent and improvement in the net interest margin, it said.

As of June 2003, the total deposit base was Rs 23,340 crore (Rs 233.4 billion), registering an increase of 32.6 per cent over Rs 17,602 crore (Rs 176.02 billion) in Q1 of last fiscal, it added.

In Q1 of FY-04, the retail accounts increased by 30 per cent from 25 lakh (2.5 million) to 33 lakh (Rs 3.3 million). Retail loans grew by 132.9 per cent to Rs 3,790 crore (Rs 37.90 billion) and now form 30.8 per cent of gross advances, it said.

The net non-performing assets of the bank was less than 0.3 per cent of customer assets and the capital adequacy ratio was pegged at 11.79 per cent.

Operating expenses grew by Rs 73.4 crore (Rs 734 million) to Rs 193.5 crore (Rs 1.93 billion), primarily due to higher marketing and distribution expenses for retail assets and credit card businesses. The expenses were also up due to hike in infrastructure investments for future business growth, the bank added.

As of June 30, 2003, the branch network comprised of 241 branches in 129 locations as against 187 branches in 89 locations in June 2002.