Tamilnad Mercantile Bank net profit falls flat at Rs 253 crore in Q4

Tuticorin-based Tamilnad Mercantile Bank (TMB) has seen its net profit falling flat during the fourth quarter of the financial year 2023-24 to Rs 253.06 crore, compared to Rs 253.05 crore during the same period in 2022-23.

The bank posted a net profit of Rs 284 crore for the October-December 2023 quarter. On the other hand, for the entire financial year, the bank posted a 4 per cent rise in net profit to Rs 1,072 crore, its highest ever, up from Rs 1,029 crore during the financial year 2022-23.

"The fourth quarter net profit remained flat due to a provisioning of Rs 28 crore towards salary increases and a full provisioning of on non-performing assets of around Rs 14 crore, as a matter of prudence," said S. Krishnan, managing director and chief executive officer of the bank.

The bank's total income during the quarter under review grew by 13 per cent to Rs 1,418 crore, up from Rs 1,254 crore during the January to March quarter of 2022-23. During the entire financial year 2023-24, its total income moved up by 17 per cent to Rs 5,492 crore compared to Rs 4,710 crore during the same period in 2022-23.

During the period under review, the bank's gross non-performing assets fell to 1.44 per cent from 2.02 per cent in the third quarter. Similarly, net non-performing assets also decreased from 0.95 per cent to 0.85 per cent.

The total business of the bank has increased to Rs 89,485 crore from Rs 85,348 crore year-on-year. The Current Account and Savings Account (CASA) has increased to Rs 14,676 crore from Rs 13,736 crore during the same time. Interest income has improved to Rs 4,848 crore from Rs 4,081 crore year-on-year. The RAM segment has increased to 91 per cent from 87 per cent during the same period.

Recently, the Reserve Bank of India had rejected the names of the candidates proposed by TMB for the position of managing director (MD) and chief executive officer (CEO). When asked about this, he said, "The search panel constituted by the board is already in search of fresh candidates. We are looking for direct applications and also through headhunting firms. The regulator has asked us to start the process again. From our side, we will expedite it and complete it as soon as possible," Krishnan said.