State-owned Indian Bank on Friday reported a standalone net profit of Rs 514 crore in the third quarter of the current fiscal, helped by an improvement in the asset quality.
The lender amalgamated Allahabad Bank with itself with effect from April 1, 2020.
Accordingly, the combined financials as on December 31, 2019, and March 31, 2020, have been arrived at by aggregation of audited numbers of the two banks.
In the year-ago quarter, the net loss of the amalgamated entity stood at Rs 1,739 crore. The pre-amalgamated profit of the bank in the December quarter of 2019-20 was Rs 247.16 crore.
"The focus area for the bank has been arresting the slippages and improving asset quality. That exercise is yielding the result. Both gross NPA and net NPA ratios have come down very significantly," the bank's managing director and CEO Padmaja Chunduru told reporters.
Domestic net interest margin (NIM) increased by 42 basis points (bps) to 3.13 per cent from 2.71 per cent.
Net interest income (NII) rose by 31 per cent to Rs 4,313 crore from Rs 3,293 crore.
The bank's restructuring portfolio due to COVID-19 stood at Rs 5,581 crore, which is 1.62 per cent of its standard advances.
Gross NPA improved to 9.04 per cent of gross advances from 12.69 per cent. Net NPA came down to 2.35 per cent from 4.22 per cent.
Provisions and contingencies were at Rs 2,585 crore as against Rs 4,555 crore for the same quarter previous year. Specific loan loss provisions were Rs 738 crore compared to Rs 4,705 crore.
"The resilience in the balance sheet is very much visible now. We have made additional provision for whatever upcoming that we can see. The notional NPAs have been provided to the extent of 21.5 per cent and that gives us very good confidence to even taken on any kind of unexpected development that may happen in future. The bank is well poised to take off from here," Chunduru said.
Fresh slippages in the quarter were Rs 88 crore. Cash recovery in the period was Rs 744 crore and up-gradation at Rs 136 crore.
Total capital adequacy ratio (CRAR) improved by 42 bps to 14.06 per cent. Tier-I CRAR was at 11.18 per cent.
Total deposits grew by 8 per cent year-on-year to Rs 5,21,248 crore and advances rose 7 per cent to Rs 3,89,646 crore.
"Even during the COVID time, it gives us a lot of satisfaction to see that the business growth has been reasonably good and satisfactory across the segment, especially in the retail, agriculture, MSME segments. The corporate group is also registering growth and we think, going ahead, in Q4 that would ramp up equally," Chundru said.
She said 166 branches, 25 zonal offices, nine currency chests, three service branches have all been rationalised so far.
The lender's scrip on Friday closed at Rs 90.90 apiece, up 1.56 per cent on BSE.
