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India’s largest public sector lender State Bank of India (SBI) on Saturday reported 24% year-on-year (YoY) growth in its standalone net profit at Rs 21,028 crore in the third quarter. Net interest income for the same period increased 9% YoY to Rs 45,190 crore.

The company’s operating profit (before provisions and contingencies) grew 40% YoY to Rs 32,862 crore.

The profit reported during the quarter was highest-ever for the bank, which came on the back of healthy loan growth.

The lender’s net interest margin stood at 2.99% in Q3FY26, while domestic NIM came in at 3.12%. For the nine months ended December 2025, domestic NIM was 3.08%.

Asset quality continued to improve, with the gross NPA ratio declining to 1.57%, down 50 basis points YoY. Net NPA ratio improved to 0.39%, lower by 14 basis points.

Provision coverage ratio, including AUCA, stood at 92.37%, while PCR excluding AUCA was 75.54%. Slippage ratio for the quarter remained contained at 0.40%, and credit cost stood at 0.29%.
On the balance sheet front, SBI’s total business crossed Rs 103 lakh crore, with deposits exceeding Rs 57 lakh crore and advances crossing Rs 46 lakh crore. The bank’s advances grew 15% YoY, led by domestic advances growth of 15%. Retail advances rose 16%, with all sub-segments reporting double-digit growth. SME advances expanded sharply by 21%, while agricultural advances grew 16% and retail personal loans increased 15%. Corporate advances also recorded a healthy growth of 13%.

Deposits grew 9% YoY, with CASA deposits rising 9%. The CASA ratio stood at 39.13% as of December 2025, while retail term deposits grew 14%, reflecting sustained traction in liability mobilisation.

The bank’s capital position remained comfortable, with the capital adequacy ratio at 14.04% and CET-1 ratio at 10.99%. Digital adoption also remained strong, with over 68% of savings bank accounts opened through Yono in Q3 and alternate channels accounting for nearly 98.6% of total transactions during the nine-month period.

Alphabet-backed Aye Finance has raised Rs 454 crore from anchor investors ahead of its IPO that opens for public subscription on February 9, providing a strong institutional endorsement to the NBFC focused on lending to micro-scale MSMEs.

The company informed stock exchanges that it allocated equity shares to anchor investors at Rs 129 per share, the upper end of its price band. The anchor book saw participation from a clutch of global and domestic institutional investors, including Goldman Sachs, Societe Generale, HDFC Life, BNP Paribas Financial Markets, Bay Pond Partners and Ithan Creek Master Investors (Cayman), according to the filing.

The anchor allocation comes days ahead of the Rs 1,010 crore IPO, which will open on February 9 and close on February 11, with listing scheduled for February 16 on the BSE and NSE. The issue comprises a fresh issue of shares worth Rs 710 crore and an offer for sale of Rs 300 crore by existing investors, including Alpha Wave India I LP, MAJ Invest Financial Inclusion Fund II, CapitalG LP, LGT Capital Invest Mauritius and Vikram Jetley.

Aye Finance has fixed the price band for the issue at Rs 122 to Rs 129 per share, with a face value of Rs 2 per share. Investors can bid for a minimum of 116 shares and in multiples thereafter. At the upper end of the price band, the retail application size works out to Rs 14,964.

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Founded in 1993, Aye Finance is a non-banking financial company in the middle layer category, focused on providing secured and unsecured business loans to micro-scale MSMEs. Its borrowers are spread across manufacturing, trading, services and allied agriculture sectors. As of September 30, 2025, the company had 586,825 active customers across 18 states and three union territories and assets under management of over Rs 6,027 crore, according to a CRISIL report.
The lender specialises in small-ticket loans, with an average disbursement ticket size of around Rs 0.18 crore, and has built underwriting capabilities around assessing cash flows of micro enterprises clustered across different geographies. This approach has helped the company maintain stable credit costs while scaling its loan book, industry analysts said.
On the financial front, Aye Finance reported revenue from operations of Rs 843 crore for the six months ended September 30, compared with Rs 692 crore in the year-ago period. For FY25, revenue stood at Rs 1,460 crore, while net profit rose to Rs 175 crore, up sharply from Rs 40 crore in FY23.
Axis Capital, IIFL Capital Services, JM Financial and Nuvama Wealth Management are the book-running lead managers to the issue, while KFin Technologies is the registrar. The offer is being made through the book-building route, with up to 75% reserved for qualified institutional buyers, and the rest allocated to non-institutional and retail investors.

The strong anchor response is expected to lend momentum to the IPO as it opens amid active primary market conditions and rising investor interest in profitable, scalable NBFC business models.

(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of The Economic Times.)

This article was written by

Analyst’s Disclosure: I/we have no stock, option or similar derivative position in any of the companies mentioned, and no plans to initiate any such positions within the next 72 hours. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.

Seeking Alpha’s Disclosure: Past performance is no guarantee of future results. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. Any views or opinions expressed above may not reflect those of Seeking Alpha as a whole. Seeking Alpha is not a licensed securities dealer, broker or US investment adviser or investment bank. Our analysts are third party authors that include both professional investors and individual investors who may not be licensed or certified by any institute or regulatory body.