Dena Bank net plummets 81% as bad loans jump in Q1

Mid-sized public sector lender Dena bank today said its net profit for the June quarter plunged 81.4 per cent to Rs 15.16 crore on account of higher operating expenses as well as provisioning for bad loans.
"Our staff expenses rose by around Rs 70 crore and provisions for NPAs also increased to Rs 340 crore from Rs 202 crore," chairman and managing director Ashwani Kumar told reporters here.
Operating expenses rose 24 per cent to Rs 548 crore as against Rs 442.63 crore in the year-ago period. The employee cost increased to Rs 355.56 crore from Rs 289.62 crore.
The bank made a provision of Rs 36.48 crore towards balance of arrears for wage revision, which is effective November 1, 2012.

Asset quality remained under pressure with gross non-performing assets jumping to 6.20 per cent from 4.21 per cent, while met NPAs soared to 4.24 per cent from 2.94 per cent.
The bank reported fresh slippages worth Rs 808 crore in the quarter. Some of the fresh accounts that slipped into NPA in the period are Parekh Aluminex (Rs 179 crore), Rathi Steel & Power (Rs 140 crore) and Hind Agro Industries ( Rs 70 crore), Kumar said.

It restructured Rs 550 crore loans during the quarter, while upgrades, write-offs and cash recovery in the period stood at Rs 370 crore.

The bank is planning to sell 108 NPA accounts worth Rs 112 crore through an auction on August 31, Kumar said.
Total business rose by 3.07 per cent to Rs 1,86,631 crore as on June 30 as compared to Rs 1,81,069 crore. Deposits rose 2.72 per cent to Rs 1,08,598 crore while advances grew 3.56 per cent to Rs 78,034 crore.
Credit deposit ratio stood at 71.86 per cent.
Mumbai-based bank is targeting a credit growth of 15 per cent and deposit growth of 13 per cent in this fiscal, Kumar said.
Dena has sought Rs 500 crore from the government under the capital infusion plan.

The bank's scrip ended 3.88 per cent up at Rs 44.15 on the BSE.