Biggest India Lender Slumps as Bad-Loan Surprise Hits Profit
- Analyst says bad loans stemmed from merger with smaller banks
- Earnings not comparable due to merger, State Bank says
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State Bank of India, the country’s largest lender by assets, fell sharply after reporting a surprise jump in bad loans, depressing profits.
Net income dropped 20 percent to 20 billion rupees ($313 million), or 2.44 rupees a share, in the three months ended June from 25.2 billion rupees, or 3.25 rupees, a year earlier, the Mumbai-based lender said in a filing Friday. That fell well short of the 29.6 billion-rupee mean estimate of 14 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.