>INDIAN FINANCIALS: Risks seep into FY13 (CLSA)

India’s capex cycle is facing multiple headwinds which will adversely impact loan and fee growth. We expect banking sector’s credit growth to moderate to 16% over FY12-13. A fall in share of capex-linked loans will hit fees harder which will impact private banks more. Asset quality faces

headwinds from slower growth and we forecast a three-fold rise in Gross NPAs by FY14. However, trends will be divergent and banks with higher exposure to risky segments and restructured loans (mostly PSUs) will see higher NPLs. We lower FY12-13 sector estimates by 3%-9%; ICICI and HDFC Bank remain our top picks and we remain U-WT on most PSU Banks. We also cut recommendation on Yes Bank to O-PF.

Slower investment cycle will affect loan growth and fee growth

■ India’s slower economic growth, near policy paralysis and gaps in execution of infrastructure projects will adversely affect banking sector’s credit growth.

■ We therefore believe that the growth in India’s bank credit is likely to slow from 21% in FY11 to ~16% in FY12 & FY13.

■ However, we do not see a major collapse in loan growth as a large share of loans is towards working capital, which will grow in line with nominal GDP.

■ Additionally, banks may also benefit from market share gains in foreign currency lending to Indian corporates as global banks are turning risk averse and are focussing on capital conservation.

■ Margins are likely to be stable as banks are focussed on profitability which was evident in 2Q results whereby most banks saw QoQ improvement in margins.

■ While credit growth may still be healthy, fall in share of longer-term / project loans will affect banks’ fee growth (these are fee intensive products); this will be a bigger risk for earnings of SBI, Axis and ICICI Bank.

Delinquencies will rise and PSU banks are more vulnerable

■ Asset quality will face pressures from (1) slowdown in economic growth, (2) high interest rates and (3) Sector-specific concerns, especially for SMEs.

■ We however expect asset quality pressures to be manageable as a) corporate leverage is low, (2) capacity utilisation is healthy, (3) loan growth multiplier has averaged 1x in past two years v/s 1.7x over FY07-08

■ We are building in three-fold rise in absolute gross NPL (Gross NPA ratio to rise from 2.4% in Mar-11 to 4.6% by Mar-14); loan loss provisioning estimated to grow at a cagr of 34% over FY11-13 (from 80bps in FY11 to 110bps in FY13)

■ However like 2Q, where private banks reported a 30% drop in loan loss charge and PSU banks reported a 42% increase (fig 19), we expect asset quality trends to continue to be divergent.

■ Asset quality pressures will be higher for banks with (1) lenient underwriting standards, (2) higher exposure to risky sectors- SME, power, real estate, textiles etc and (3) higher share of restructured loans.

Lowering earnings and target prices; prefer quality over value

■ We lower sector earning estimates for banks by 3% for FY12 and 9% for FY13 on the back of a cut in loan growth and fee growth as well as higher loan loss provisioning; we have also lowered our target prices.

■ Our sensitivity analysis indicates (1) 10bps higher LLP will impact FY13 earnings by 2-7% and (2) 1% higher gross NPLs will impact FY13 adjusted BVPS by 7-39%; banks with higher leverage and low ROA are more vulnerable.

■ We prefer banks with well capitalised balance sheet, stronger liability franchise and higher ROA with ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank being our top picks.

■ We remain underweight on SBI and most other PSU Banks; BOB is our only positive recommendation in the PSU space.

■ Downgrade Yes bank to O-PF as upside to price target is 11%.

To read the full report: INDIAN FINANCIALS

RISH TRADER