IOB posts Rs 143.79 cr net profit in Q4 FY20 on back of declining bad loans

Indian Overseas Bank (IOB) swung into black, posting a net profit of Rs 143.79 crore in the quarter ended March 2020 as bad loans declined significantly.

The public sector bank had posted a net loss of Rs 1,985.16 crore during January-March quarter of preceding fiscal ended March 2019.

In October-December 2019, its net loss stood at Rs 6,075.49 crore.

Income during March quarter of FY20 remained nearly flat at Rs 5,484.06 crore as compared with Rs 5,473.92 crore in the same period of 2018-19, IOB said in a regulatory filing.

Provisioning for bad loans and contingencies during the quarter under review fell to Rs 1,060.38 crore as against Rs 4,501.92 crore in the year-ago quarter.

On asset quality front, there was a huge improvement in gross non-performing assets (NPA) which stood at 14.78 per cent of the gross advances as on March 31, 2020 as against 21.97 per cent at the end of March 2019.

In absolute terms, gross NPAs stood at Rs 19,912.70 crore as against Rs 33,398.12 crore a year ago.

Similarly, net NPAs or bad loans dropped to 5.44 per cent (Rs 6,602.80 crore) from 10.81 per cent (Rs 14,368.30 crore) a year ago.

The bank's provision coverage ratio as on March 31, 2020 stood at 86.94 per cent as against 71.39 per cent a year ago.

Shares of IOB on Thursday closed 10 per cent higher at Rs 11.99 apiece on the BSE.