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The total interest income during the quarter increased by 6.91% to Rs 3,451 crore from Rs 3,228 crore. The net interest income increased by 2.29% to Rs 1,027 crore.
The bank's operating expenditure in the fourth quarter declined to Rs 488 crore from Rs 612 in Q4 of previous year. This was primarily due to a 25.61% decline in staff expenditure. "Actuarial valuation of staff expenditure had resulted in a saving of Rs 90 crore", SBH managing director, M Bhagavantha Rao, told media persons here on Friday.
On a year-on-year basis, the bank's net profit, however, declined by 18.4% to Rs 1,020 crore from Rs 1,250 crore. The gross non-performing assets (NPAs) also increased from Rs 3,186 crore to Rs 5,824 crore.
Rao said that the general economic slowdown in the country and situation in the state impacted the business and industry which, in turn, affected the asset quality.
He said that 71% of NPAs pertained to large corporates operating in five major sectors- infrastructure, food processing, iron and steel, textiles and chemicals. The NPAs of these companies increased from Rs 2,290 crore to Rs 4,660 crore during the year. In contrast, the NPAs in personal finance segment (housing, car loans, etc) had increased by only Rs 18 crore from Rs 200 crore to Rs 218 crore.
SBH's chief general manager (commercial banking), Jyoti Ghosh, said that the NPAs have "reached peak level" and were likely to decline by the end of the current financial. The bank was also exploring the possibility of going in for corporate debt restructuring (CDR) of big companies. It was currently considering 67 accounts for CDR.
