Banking On Tailwinds For Profits
Company Name: Axis Bank
CMP: Rs 906
Market cap: Rs 2,78,704 crore
Over the past many years, the Indian banking sector saw low loan growth and high credit cost, which dented profitability. But now it is well set to deliver higher loan growth and lower credit cost. The economic environment also bodes well for delivering healthy performance.
Axis Bank is the third-largest private bank with a balance sheet size of Rs 11.8 trillion and total advances and deposits of Rs 7.3 trillion and Rs 8.1 trillion, respectively, as of September 2022. Over the past few years, its net profit declined from Rs 82.2 billion in FY16 to Rs 2.7 billion in FY18. It was further impacted by Covid in FY20 and it delivered a modest profit after tax (PAT) of Rs 16.3 billion.
In FY22, the bank's loan growth improved by 15 per cent, while its credit cost moderated to 0.8 per cent against 4.1 per cent in FY18. As a result, Axis Bank reported net profit of Rs 130 billion in FY22 and delivered return on assets (ROA) and return on equity (ROE) of 1.2 per cent and...