General information and entertainment, not investment advice. The author is not a SEBI-registered adviser or research analyst. No recommendation, no promised returns. Markets carry risk including loss of capital. Figures may not be current. Consult a registered adviser before acting.
1. Opening Hook
A bank spent the whole of FY26 cleaning up its credit book. Credit cost started the year at 93 basis points and ended Q4 at 39. Slippages dropped to INR 1,018 crore from INR 1,605 crore the prior quarter. Asset quality improved on every line management reads out. And then the full-year consolidated profit came in at INR 19,103 crore against INR 19,113 crore last year, excluding stake-sale gains, management said. Essentially flat.
So the quarter has a strange shape. The numbers that measure pain got better fast. The number shareholders actually count barely moved. Meanwhile, the bank disclosed during the call that the West Asia crisis is being watched “very, very, very closely,” sold a 30% associate stake, and renamed its broking arm. There is also the matter of a branch the Enforcement Directorate is investigating. Plenty to decode.
2. At a Glance
- Q4 consolidated PAT: INR 5,238 cr (ex-gains), up 6% YoY – The Bank standalone grew PAT 13%; the consolidated figure grew 6% because the subsidiaries had a rough March.
- Full-year consolidated profit: ~flat ex-Infina – Management quoted INR 19,103 cr vs INR 19,113 cr. The most stable number in the deck is the one that didn’t move.
- FY26 NIM: 4.60% vs 4.96% – Thirty-six basis points went somewhere. Management said repo cuts found them before deposit repricing could catch up.
- Credit cost FY26: 65 bps full year, 39 bps in Q4 – The cleanup is real; the year-average still carries the first three quarters’ baggage.
- ROE: 11.08% for the year – Against a stated objective of “high teens.” The teens remain a destination.
- CASA: 43.3% – Held steady while management quietly cut reliance on high-cost floating-rate savings by 30%.
- Dividend: INR 0.65/share, payout 4.62% – On a year of INR 19,000 crore in profit, the cheque stays modest.
3. Management’s Key Commentary
Management opened with geography. “The Strait of Hormuz has become a significant choke point for India.” (A choke point for oil shipping that has become, in this call, a choke point for the macro section of the script.)
On the credit book: “we have seen absolutely no sign of any credit stress.” (Stated firmly, then followed across two pages by the words “watchful,” “monitoring,” and “tightening at the bottom end.”)
On the unsecured ratio: “I’m not going to hold back secured growth just to get a better unsecured ratio.” (A clean refusal to manage the optics — the ratio is “a kind of fallout,” management said, which is one way to describe a number you’d rather not be asked about.)
On the year’s progress: “now with the technology embargo behind us, with the credit cost issues behind us” (Two “behind us” in one breath. The phrase is doing a lot of carrying.)
On the brand spend, the group launched a campaign titled “Hausla Hai Toh Ho Jayega.” (Other operating expenditure rose 11% QoQ to INR 3,076 crore, partly on this brand and awareness push, management said. The courage was budgeted.)
On the NIM outlook, asked three times whether reduction was versus the exit quarter or the full year, management settled it: “It is for the full year.” (Four analysts circled the same point; the answer arrived range-bound.)
On the tractor business, where Kotak trailed a 35% industry surge: “we don’t want to be price leaders here.” (The number-2 tractor financier explaining, with composure, why it let a boom go past
