Bangalore-based public sector lender, Vijaya Bank, today returned to black and posted a net profit of Rs 143.3 crore for the first quarter ended June 30, 2009 compared to a net loss of Rs 76.64 crore in the corresponding quarter last fiscal. Its total income for the period went up by 15.2 per cent to Rs 1,463.42 crore as against the same quarter last year.
The rise in net profit was primarily because of Rs 90 crore write back of marked-to-mark provisions, 53.75 per cent growth in net interest income at Rs 341 crore and trading income of Rs 72 crore, a growth of 3.6 times over the corresponding quarter of last year and 51.6 per cent rise in other income at Rs 162.4 crore in the first quarter as against the same quarter last year.
Albert Tauro, chairman and managing director, Vijaya Bank said, “Our first quarter earnings were impressive in the light of somewhat slackened business growth. Our net interest income continued to feature progressive improvement sequentially as well as on quarter-on-quarter basis, leading to a robust growth in operating profit.”
The bank’s operating profit for the quarter went up by 35.4 per cent to Rs 209.7 crore compared to the same period a year ago. The bank made a provision of Rs 65 crore towards wage arrears, provision for superannuation benefits to the tune of Rs 44.38 crore, provision for taxes of Rs 102.75 crore and provision for non performing assets to the tune of Rs 104.6 crore.
The cost of deposits has come down from 7.16 per cent to 6.82 per cent. Operating expenses recorded 68.72 per cent growth during the quarter, mainly due to additional provisioning of Rs 65 crore towards wage revision under the ongoing bipartite settlement and Rs 44.38 crore on account of superannuation benefits.
Return on assets stood at 0.93 per cent. The percentage of net non performing assets went up to 1.58 per cent as against 0.68 per cent in the year ago period. The earnings per share for the quarter was Rs 3.31. The capital adequacy ratio under Basel-II stood at 13.34 per cent, because of better credit profile. It is applied for the first time for the bank.