State-run Indian Overseas Bank reported an over two-fold rise in its profit-after-tax at Rs 350 crore in the three months to March 2021, helped by higher growth in other income and on improvement in asset quality.
In the quarter ended March 2020, the lender had registered a profit-after-tax of Rs 144 crore after being in red for 18 consecutive quarters.
The bank has posted yearly net profit of Rs 831 crore for the year ended March 2021 after six years. In FY20, it had reported a loss of Rs 8,527 crore.
"There has been good improvement in all the financial parameters. Our asset quality has also witnessed a substantial decline," the lender's Managing Director and CEO Partha Pratim Sengupta told reporters.
He said growth in the profit during Q4 FY21 was on account of improvement in the other income, led by higher treasury income, and on decline in interest cost on deposits.
Other income increased to Rs 2,016 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2021 as against Rs 1,095 crore in the year-ago quarter.
Net interest margin stood at 2.39 per cent. The lender is targeting NIM to be in the 2.65-2.70 per cent range, Sengupta said.
Gross non-performing assets (GNPAs) stood at Rs 16,323 crore or 11.69 per cent as against Rs 19,913 crore or 14.78 per cent. Net NPAs improved to 3.58 per cent from 5.44 per cent.
The bank made recoveries worth Rs 3,934 crore in Q4FY21 as against Rs 2,377 crores last year in the same period. It has set a recovery target of Rs 4,600 crore for FY22.
During the March quarter, the bank wrote off Rs 2,542 crore of loans, Sengupta said.
He said the bank is looking to transfer around Rs 1,600 crore of bad loans to the National Asset Reconstruction Company Ltd (NARCL).
Under the resolution framework 2.0, the bank has identified Rs 8,000 crore of accounts for restructuring, Sengupta said.
Provision coverage ratio (PCR) improved to 90.34 per cent as against 86.94 per cent. Total Capital to risk (weighted) assets ratio (CRAR) stood at 15.32 per cent. The bank had received capital infusion of Rs 4,100 crore from the government during FY2020-21.
Gross advances stood at Rs 1,39,597 crore and deposits at Rs 2,40,288 as on March 31, 2021.
The bank plans to come out of the Reserve Bank of India's Prompt Corrective Action (PCA) framework by focusing on recovery, low cost deposits and less capital consuming advances.
"With the ploughing back of the profit and with the infusion of funds by the government, we are very comfortable in all the parameters. Whatever the regulator has been expecting from us, we have progressively shown improvement," Sengupta said, adding that the bank has already approached the RBI for removal of the tag.
On privatisation, he said there has been no official communication from the government on the same.
The bank's scrip closed at Rs 21.10 apiece, up 2.18 per cent on the BSE.
