Indian Bank H1 bottomline up 32%

The Chennai-based Indian Bank reported a 31.81 per cent jump in net profit to Rs 154.10 crore for the half year ending September 30, 2004.

Operating profits almost doubled to Rs 545.46 crore for the half year ending September 30, 2004 compared with Rs 289.21 crore for the same period last year.

M B N Rao, CMD, said the bank is definitely going in for initial public offering and size of valuation will be decided within three months.

The increase in risk weightage of housing loans and adherence to Basel-II norms in the next fiscal were the reasons for the bank to tap the market. The bank's capital adequacy ratio was 14.58 per cent as on September 30, 2004 compared with 12.82 per cent on March 30, 2004. About Rs 300 crore was raised by the bank through tier-II capital in July, 2004.

When asked about if there were any talks regarding acquisitions or merger with other public sector banks, Rao said the bank was examining the option and it was too early to say anything.

The bank's net profit of Rs 154.10 crore was after making provision towards arrears of wages of Rs 110 crore, depreciation of investment amounting Rs 129 crore. Floating provisions for NPAs was allocated Rs 85 crore and a new provision of market risk and contingency of Rs 30 crore was made by the bank.

Net NPA was at 2.25 per cent as on September 30, 2004. About Rs 147 crore NPAs was recovered as on Septeber 30, 2004. The bank is well poised towards reaching its goal of bringing the net NPA to zero by March 2007.