After reporting losses for two straight quarters, state-run Bank of India Thursday posted a net profit of Rs 252 crore for the three months to March, helped by higher growth in interest income, reduction in bad loans and lower provisioning.
The lender had reported a net loss of Rs 3,969 crore in the same quarter of last year. Its net losses in the third and second quarters of FY19 stood at Rs 4,738 crore and Rs 1,156 crore, respectively.
The bank was taken out of the Reserve Bank of India's prompt corrective action (PCA) framework in January 2019.
"Even during the most challenging times of PCA regime, we have still grown at around 12 per cent on domestic front. We have grown in a balanced way. As a result our net interest income (NII), net interest margin (NIM) have improved significantly and we have been able to post profit during the quarter," the bank's Managing Director and CEO Dinabandhu Mohapatra told reporters.
However, for the full year, the bank's net loss stood at Rs 5,547 crore as against a net loss of Rs 6,044 crore in FY18.
NII surged 58 per cent to Rs 4,044 crore from Rs 2,564 crore.
Domestic NIM rose by 146 basis points to 3.38 per cent from 1.92 per cent.
Gross non-performing loans improved to 15.84 per cent from 16.58 per cent, while net NPAs stood at 5.61 per cent as against 8.26 per cent.
Total provisions during the quarter reduced to Rs 1,897 crore as against Rs 6,673 crore in the same period last year.
Fresh NPAs declined to Rs 3,102 crore in the quarter as against Rs 12,973 crore earlier.
The lender has an exposure of Rs 3,467 crore and Rs 2,666 crore to large stressed accounts from the RBI's first and second list of defaulters, and it has made 100 per cent provision on these accounts.
Mohapatra said he expects Rs 2,000 crore of write back in the first quarter of FY20 as he sees many of the big NCLT accounts getting resolved.
The bank has identified Rs 30,000 crore of bad loans to be sold to asset reconstruction companies (ARCs) in FY20. In FY19, it had sold Rs 4,000 crore of bad loans to ARCs.
Domestic gross advances increased by 11.80 per cent to Rs 3,28,137 crore and deposits rose 0.14 per cent to Rs 4,21,783 crore as on March 31, 2019.
Mohapatra said he sees loan growth 15 per cent in FY20.
The bank's scrip ended 1.94 per cent higher at Rs 81.65 apiece on BSE Thursday.
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