(From right) K.V. Kamath, managing director and CEO of ICICI Bank, Chanda Kocchar, joint managing director and CFO, and Sonjoy Chatterjee, executive director — corporate and international banking, in Mumbai on Saturday. (Fotocorp)

Mumbai, April 26: ICICI Bank has posted a net profit of Rs 1,150 crore in the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2008, compared with Rs 825 crore a year ago, a 39 per cent growth.

The numbers beat analysts’ expectations — they had expected the bank to report a net profit of around Rs 915 crore.

The bank’s bottomline swelled despite its $100-million provision for mark-to-market losses on its derivative portfolio during January-March.

The bank’s net interest income rose 29 per cent to Rs 2,079 crore from Rs 1,609 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous year.

Fee income was Rs 1,928 crore, a 35 per cent gain over Rs 1,427 crore a year ago.

The bank’s treasury income, however, fell 63 per cent to Rs 164 crore because of weak conditions in the equity markets.

Chanda Kochhar, joint managing director of ICICI Bank, said the bank maintained its market leadership in retail credit and also bolstered its presence in corporate banking.

However, high interest rates affected retail credit, which grew only 3 per cent during the year against 30 per cent in the previous fiscal.

Kochhar added that actual growth in retail advances would be around 15 per cent if selldowns were considered: the bank sold some retail loans to other parties.

Provisions rose to Rs 948 crore from Rs 876 crore a year ago.

Kochhar declined to reveal the losses suffered by corporate customers on their derivative exposures. Officials, however, confirmed that the bank had made some contingent provisions.

ICICI Bank is also involved in legal disputes with some companies.

“There have been some issues with clients but those matters are subjudice,” Kochhar said.

Axis Bank recently made a contingent provision to reflect the MTM losses suffered by its customers.