IFCI net loss bloats 10-fold to Rs 1115 crore in Q3

Financial institution IFCI Ltd reported an over 10-fold jump in its net loss to Rs 1,114.65 crore during October-December 2003 compared with Rs 95.12 crore in the corresponding period in the previous year on account of a four-fold jump in provisions and write-offs for bad debts.

The financial institution, which is to be merged with Punjab National Bank, provided Rs 981.78 crore for bad and doubtful debts and also wrote-off some of its assets during the quarter-ended December 2003.

In the corresponding period in the previous year, IFCI had provided Rs 232.55 crore.

The institution's borrowing costs also rose 22.27 per cent to Rs 351.76 crore during October-December 2003 from 287.69 in the corresponding period in 2002.

For the nine month period ended December 2003, IFCI reported losses of Rs 2,464.72 crore, as against losses of Rs 609.7 crore in the corresponding period in 2002.

It's provisioning for bad and doubtful assets in the first three quarters has gone up from Rs 333.95 crore in 2002 to Rs 1,766.80 crore in the corresponding period of 2003.

Its operating expenses, excluding provisions for bad and doubtful assets, have more than doubled from Rs 41.58 crore in April to December 2002 to Rs 84.84 crore in the first three quarters of 2003-04, while income has fallen by over a fifth.

IFCI's income , including operational and other income, has gone down from Rs 1,270.32 crore in the first nine months of 2002 to Rs 999.67 crore in the period between April and December 2003, a fall of 21.3 per cent.