Indian Bank Q3 net profit crosses Rs 500 crore mark

Chennai:

Indian Bank closed its third quarter with a net profit of Rs 526 crore as against Rs 491 crore posted during the corresponding period of the previous fiscal and the bank has plans to convert Rs 400 crore of Perpetual Non-Convertible Preference Shares (PNCPS) into equity at market rate soon.

Addressing a press conference, Chairman and Managing director of Indian Bank T M Bhasin said this is the first time in the bank’s history that the quarterly net profit has crossed the Rs 500 crore mark.

He said for the nine year period, the net profit stood at Rs 1,402 crore as against Rs 1275 crore posted during the corresponding period.

Bhasin said the bank’s net interest income for the quarter that went by went up by 33 per cent to Rs 3,505 crore from Rs.2,641 crore earned during the third quarter last year. The bank’s current equity capital is Rs 429.77 crore.

Interestingly, the bank’s plans to convert Rs 400 crore of Perpetual Non-Convertible Preference Shares (PNCPS) into equity at market rate soon comes in the wake of the bank holding the government’s sanction to dilute 10 percent of its equity.

Speaking about the bank’s non performing assets (NPA) Bhasin said the gross NPA to gross advances ratio was at 1.35 per cent while the net NPA to net advances was at 0.80 per cent.

During the first nine months of the current fiscal the bank has added fresh NPA of Rs 839 crore and for the third quarter the loan account slippage is Rs 293 crore.

He said the NPA recovery target for the current fiscal is Rs.500 crore and till date the bank has recovered Rs 366 crore.

He said the period under review Indian Bank’s total global business went up to Rs.207,014 crore (deposits Rs.118,970 crore, advances Rs.88,044 crore) from the previous year’s figure of Rs.174,035 crore (deposits Rs.101,015 crore, advances Rs.73,919 crore). He said the bank plans to open overseas branches in Hong Kong besides Batticoloa, Humbathotta and Trincomallee in Sri Lanka,

Indian Bank’s cost of deposit stood at 6.86 per cent, yield on advances 11.66 per cent and yield on investments 7.63 per cent.