Kotak Mahindra brings down unsecured credit to Rs 1,600 cr

Private sector lender, Kotak Mahindra Bank has successfully brought down the proportion of its retail unsecured loans to Rs 1,600 crore in Q2 FY10, from Rs 2,900 crore in the year-ago period, a top official said.

"The amount (of unsecured loans) in our book as on September, 2008 was Rs 2,900 crore, which has been brought down to Rs 1,600 crore. Though this process will continue in the period ahead, there are no plans to exit the portfolio completely," Kotak Mahindra Bank's Chief Financial Officer, Jaimin Bhatt said here.

Kotak Mahindra Bank's total advances currently stands at Rs 26,700 crore as against Rs 24,000 crore in the year-ago period. Moving ahead, the bank would focus more on increasing its corporate loan portfolio, Bhatt said. "By the end of this fiscal, corporate loans are expected to contribute around one third of our total loan book," Bhatt said.

"The bank has targeted an average credit growth of 20 per cent for the full fiscal," Bhatt said. Kotak Mahindra Bank's net NPAs (standalone) for the quarter ended September stood at 1.71 per cent as against 0.63 per cent in the year-ago period.

On a consolidated basis, Kotak Mahindra Bank clocked a 86 per cent jump in its consolidated net profit at Rs 299.76 crore in Q2 FY10 as against Rs 160.9 crore over the same period last year.

Total income rose to Rs 2,312.91 crore in the latest quarter ended September 30, 2009, up 25.05 per cent from Rs 1,849.51 crore in the same period corresponding fiscal. On standalone basis, the bank reported a net profit of Rs 125.90 crore for the July-September quarter, jumped over two-folds to Rs 47.86 crore in the same period last fiscal.