Indian Bank posts flat FY05 bottomline

Indian Bank reported a flat growth of 0.67 per cent in net profit to Rs 408.49 crore for the year ending March 31, 2005 compared with Rs 405.75 crore in the previous year.

Operating profit grew by 19.39 per cent to Rs 958.07 crore during 2004-05 from Rs 802.46 crore in 2003-04. The bank declined to disclose its fourth quarter results on a standalone basis.

Addressing mediapersons, M B N Rao, chairman and managing director, said profit was achieved after making provisions amounting to Rs 549.58 crore in 2004-05 for impending wage arrears of Rs 137.40 crore; depreciation on investments amounted to Rs 136.48 crore.

The provisions was about Rs 396.71 crore last year. The bank had shifted treasury bonds worth Rs 2,500 crore from available-for-sale to held-to-maturity segment in 2004-05.

The net income of bank was Rs 958.07 crore during 2004-05 (Rs 802.47 crore). The bank had recovered bad loans worth Rs 311 crore in 2004-05 and thereby reducing its net non performing assets (NPA) to Rs 244 crore.

Net NPA fell to 1.35 per cent during 2004-05 compared with Rs 2.71 per cent the previous year. Gross NPA was almost halved to 3.98 per cent for the year ending March 31, 2005 compared with 7.98 per cent the last year.

The bank's total deposits grew 14.33 per cent to Rs 34,808 crore in 2004-05 (Rs 30,444) and advances reported a 30.11 per cent growth to Rs 18,380 crore in 2004-05 (Rs 14,126 crore).

Rao said the bank will definitely tap the primary market during the current year. When asked about the size of issue he refused to comment on it.