Higher core income and lower provisions drove a 168.41% jump in net profit for Bank of Baroda in the March quarter.

According to a regulatory filing, the state-run lender’s standalone net profit for the quarter stood at Rs 4,775 crore, compared with Rs 1,779 crore in the year-ago period. It reported a total income of Rs 29,322 crore, up 42% the same quarter last year.

Bank of Baroda said the robust growth in its profitability was supported by a healthy improvement in its net interest income. NII—the difference between the interest earned from lending activities and what the bank pays to depositors—grew 33.8% to Rs 11,525 crore, while the lender’s net interest margin—a key indicator of profitability—stood at 3.53% for the quarter, an increase of 0.45 percentage point from a year ago.

The public sector bank also had a strong quarter on the asset quality front. Its gross non-performing assets as a percentage of advances fell to 3.79% as of 31 March from 4.53% at the end of the previous quarter and 6.61% a year ago. The bank’s net NPAs as a percentage of advances similarly declined to a record low of 0.89% in the March quarter from 0.99% in the previous quarter and 1.72% a year ago.

Bank of Baroda’s global advances grew 18.5% year-on-year to Rs 9,69,548 crore, led by robust growth in its retail loan book. Domestic advances were up 16.3% at Rs 7,95,560 crore. The bank’s global deposits rose 15.1% from a year before to Rs 12,03,688 crore, with domestic deposits rising 13% Rs 10,47,375 crore.

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Airtel profit up nearly 50%

Bharti Airtel, India’s second-largest telecom operator, posted a 49.2% year-on-year jump in consolidated net profit at Rs 3,005.6 crore for the March quarter. The company’s revenue from operations stood at Rs 36,009 crore, up 14.3% from a year ago, driven by a strong and consistent performance across business segments, it said in a regulatory filing.

Bharti Airtel said its consolidated EBITDA rose 17.6% year-on-year in the March quarter to Rs 18,807 crore, which led to an improvement in its EBITDA margin to 52.2% from 50.8% in the year-ago period on the back of the company’s continued focus on its ‘War on Waste’ programme to drive cost optimization. EBITDA stands for earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, and is a measure of a company’s operating profitability.

Bharti Airtel said its margins across businesses remained healthy, with its India EBITDA margin improving to 53.1% in the March quarter from 50.8% a year ago. Revenue from the India business grew 12.2% year-on-year to Rs 25,250 crore in the quarter.

The average revenue per user—a key performance indicator for telcos—stood at Rs 193 in the March quarter, up 8.4% from a year ago but unchanged from the previous quarter. Rival and market leader Reliance Jio in comparison posted a fourth-quarter ARPU of Rs 178.8, up 6.7% year-on-year and 0.3% from the December quarter.

Airtel said its total subscriber base stood at 375 million as of 31 March. It added a net 3.1 million subscribers during the quarter, lower than the 4.4 million additions in the December quarter.