South Indian Bank Q3 net up 64%

Kerala-based South Indian Bank (SIB) today reported a 63.93% increase in net profit at Rs 40.72 crore for the third quarter ended December 31, 2007 when compared with Rs 24.84 crore in Q3FY07.

SIB said cumulative profit for the period ended December 31, 2007 was up 81.84% at Rs 106.78 crore as against Rs 58.72 crore in the corresponding period of the last fiscal. This is excluding the extraordinary profit on sale of Bharat Overseas Bank (BhOB) shares by the bank.

Total business of the bank increased 31.56% to Rs 24,504 crore from Rs 18,626 crore. While deposits moved up 32.58% to Rs 14,484 crore, advances were up 30.10% to Rs 10,020 crore.

The bank posted a total income of Rs 1,043.29 crore during the nine-month  period, up 39.36% from Rs 748.63 crore in the same period of the previous year.

Gross NPAs dropped to 2.53% from 4.29% while net NPAs were down to 0.49% from 1.49%, the bank said.

SIB officials said the bank had recently issued two crore equity shares of Rs 10 each at a premium of Rs 153 per share aggregating Rs 326 crore to qualified institutional buyers. The present FII holding in the bank stands at 47.46% as against the permissible limit of 49%, they added.

The bank is planning to open 13 more branches during the current financial year, which will take the total number of branches to 500.