Mumbai, May 9: The ICICI Bank image may have taken a hit after it reported on Monday, May 8, about the 49.6 Percent Year-on-Year (YoY) Drop in Net Profit while announcing Q4 results, but the shares of the ICICI bank rose by about 6 percent in opening trade on Tuesday. This is some good news for the country's largest private sector lender as the bank has been going through tough times of late with the Videocon- ICICI bank loan case coming to light.

The case threatened the position and reputation of one of the most respected names in the business: ICICI Bank CEO and MD Chanda Kochhar. A lookout notice was issued against ICICI Bank CEO Chanda Kochhar, husband Deepak & Videocon Chief Venugopal Dhoot in April 2018.

The ICICI Bank had on Monday reported 45 per cent decline in consolidated net profit to Rs 1,142 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2017-18. It had a net profit of Rs 2,083 crore in the January-March quarter of the preceding fiscal, 2016-17.

The bank's standalone profit declined by 50 per cent to Rs 1,020 crore as against Rs 2,025 crore in the year-ago quarter. The results come against the backdrop of a series of allegations of impropriety in ICICI Bank's extending loans to some companies and enjoying reciprocal benefits by the family members of the lender's CEO Chanda Kochhar. The ICICI Bank Ltd NSE numbers at 2.04 pm IST numbers were 311.40 INR +21.60 (7.45%).

The ICICI Videocon loan case has its roots in the year 2008, when the head of the Videocon Group Venugopal Dhoot had formed a company along with the husband of ICICI Bank CEO Chanda Kochhar's husband Deepak Kochhar. The company was then given a loan of Rs 64 crores through an owned entity and then the company was transferred in the name of a trust headed by Deepak Kochhar for Rs 9 lakh only. This raised conflict of interest and propriety issues. Further, whistleblower Arvind Gupta, who had written a blog on the Videocon loan issue in the year 2016 claimed that ICICI Bank had granted loans worth Rs 3,250 crore to Videocon Industries because of the relations between ICICI Bank's CEO Chanda Kochhar's husband Deepak Kochhar and Videocon group's chief Venugopal Dhoot. The loans later became bad loans as Videocon group could not return the loan amount.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on May 08, 2018 02:24 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).