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Lower provisions towards bad loans and a rise in other income have lifted the net profit of Syndicate Bank by 91.59 per cent to Rs 592 crore for the fourth quarter-ended March 31 as against Rs 309 crore in the corresponding quarter last year. The total income recorded a moderate rise of eight per cent to Rs 4,781 crore as against Rs 4,424 crore in the year-ago quarter.
The operating profit for the quarter was marginally up 2.3 per cent to Rs 901 crore as against Rs 880 crore in the same quarter of last year.
M G Sanghvi, chairman and managing director, said, “A MAT (Minimum Alternate Tax) credit of Rs 104 crore and lower provisions towards bad loans, as our net non performing assets level was lower, collectively helped us to post higher net profit in the fourth quarter. Along with this, our fee-based income has improved 33 per cent to Rs 399 crore.”
The provisions were lower by 46 per cent to Rs 364 crore as against Rs 671 crore in the fourth quarter of the previous financial year.
However, net interest income almost stagnated at Rs 1,344 crore against Rs 1,337 crore. Yield on advances dipped 97 basis points to 10.04 per cent during the quarter as against 11.01 per cent in the fourth quarter last year, while cost of deposits were lower by 36 basis points to 6.56 per cent. The net interest margin also went down 63 basis points to 2.97 per cent.
Sanghvi said, “During the last one year, we have reduced our base rate twice by 25 basis points each and as a result, our yields came down.”
The return on assets has improved to 1.19 per cent from 0.76 per cent in the year-ago quarter. The capital adequacy ratio under Basel-II went up to 12.59 per cent as against 12.24 per cent. The percentage of net non-performing assets went down to 0.76 per cent from 0.96 per cent.
