Indian Bank net soars 57% in H1

Indian Bank has reported a 57.13 per cent jump in net profit to Rs 242.14 crore for the half year ended September 30, 2005, compared with Rs 154.10 crore for the same period last year.

Addressing a press conference on the launch of multi-city banking facility, K C Chakrabarthy, chairman and managing director, Indian Bank, said that the bank registered a 50 per cent growth in net profit despite lower operating profit of Rs 120 crore, increase in wage bill of Rs 78 crore and an additional floating provision of Rs 62 crore in the first half.

Chakrabarthy pointed out that the profit was largely from its core banking functions and partially from bad debts recovery. The bank had recovered about Rs 200 crore of bad debt in the period, a key factor in the rise in net profit.

He said that the bank has so far been on the recovery path as portrayed by the net profit figures, which for the first time has surpassed the interest income earned from its recapitalisation bonds of about Rs 4,500 crore.

Operating profit fell to Rs 420 crore for the period compared with Rs 540 crore for the same period last year. The last year's operating profit for the first half also included Rs 116 crore from treasury profits.

Indian Bank's net non-performing assets ratio dropped to 1.06 per cent in the period. Its net interest income improved by 10.53 per cent to Rs 700.28 crore (Rs 633.55 crore).

Total business of the bank increased by 17.49 per cent to Rs 58,602 crore. Total deposits grew by 14.71 per cent to Rs 37,907 crore (Rs 33,046 crore) and net advances by 26.10 per cent to Rs 20,176.84 crore (Rs 16,000.45 crore).