ICICI Bank's UK unit posts $35 mn loss

Amid criticism of its exposure to 'toxic' assets abroad, India's largest private sector lender ICICI Bank on Monday said its UK subsidiary has registered a $35 million (around Rs 160 crore) net loss for the half year ended September 30 on account of higher provisioning in its investments abroad.

"After making the required provisioning on our investments abroad, our UK subsidiary has made a net loss of $35 million...(however) as on September 30, the net NPAs of this unit is zero," ICICI Bank's joint managing director Chanda Kochhar said.

The UK subsidiary has a total deposit base of $4.9 billion as at September-end, out of which 39 per cent constituted term deposits, Kochhar said.

For the second quarter, the lender posted a marginal rise of 1.1 per cent in its net profit at Rs 1,014 crore (Rs 10.14 billion) from Rs 1,003 crore (Rs 10.03 billion) in the same quarter in the previous fiscal while the total income rose to Rs 9,712 crore (Rs 97.12 billion) as compared with Rs 9,588 crore (Rs 95.88 billion).

In the face of challenging market conditions, the bank has been closely monitoring all segments of its operations to maintain credit quality and sustain growth in key sectors, Kochhar said.

"We are monitoring all portfolios very closely. Retail lending still constitutes 55 per cent of our total advances...We haven't seen any major changes (in bad assets) in the last quarter," Kochhar said.