MUMBAI, Oct 16 Reuters HDFC Bank, India39;s largest private lender, posted a standalone net profit of 159.76 billion Indian rupees 1.92 billion for the JulySeptember quarter, it said on Monday.

The standalone numbers do not include the business of the bank39;s subsidiaries.

The results mark the first quarterly earnings report following the merger of HDFC Bank with parent Housing Development Finance Corp HDFC on July 1 in a 40 billion deal, and the company did not give the comparable yearago quarter numbers.

Net interest income, or core lending income, stood at 273.85 billion rupees.

The gross nonperforming assets NPA ratio rose to 1.34. The bank39;s gross NPA ratio was 1.17 in the fiscal first quarter prior to the merger.

The gross NPA ratio was lower than the 1.41 for the combined entity on a pro forma basis at the end of the June quarter, the bank said.

Net bad loans, after provisions by the bank, rose 5 basis points to 0.35.

The bank saw a sharp drop in its net interest margin to 3.4 on all assets and 3.6 on interestearning assets. Net interest margin was 4.1 in the June quarter.

Gross loans were at 23.55 trillion rupees, up 4.9 from the previous quarter on a liketolike basis, the lender said.

Deposits aggregated to about 21.73 trillion rupees at the end of September, a 5.3 increase from June end on a comparable basis.

1 83.2510 Indian rupees

Reporting by Siddhi Nayak; Editing by Dhanya Ann Thoppil

Source Reuters