Private sector Lakshmi Vilas Bank today reported over 4-fold jump in its net profits at Rs 31.50 crore for the second quarter, driven by lower provisioning for non-performing assets and expecting a 20 per cent growth in the current fiscal.
Its net profit was Rs 5.85 crore in the July-September quarter in the last fiscal, according to Lakshmi Vilas Bank Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Rakesh Sharma.
"The total profits grew by 438.21 per cent to Rs 31.50 crore for the second quarter ending September 30, 2014, from Rs 5.85 crore registered last year," he told reporters here.
He said "heavy provisioning" for non-performing assets (NPAs) last year had led to the decline in the net profit in the corresponding quarter.
For the half year period ended September 30, net profits grew by 91.22 per cent to Rs 59.65 crore from Rs 31.19 crore registered during the same period of previous year.
The total income of the bank for the second quarter ended September 30 rose to Rs 617.84 crore, up from Rs 536.76 crore during the same period last year, he said.
For the six-month period April-September, total income grew by 12.70 per cent to Rs 1,204.96 crore from Rs 1,069.22 crore registered during corresponding quarter of last year.
The bank will emphasise on bringing gross NPAs to three per cent and the net NPAs below two per cent, he said.
The net NPAs declined to 2.78 per cent for the quarter from 3.77 per cent in the year-ago period. Gross NPAs slipped to 3.72 per cent for the second quarter as against 5.22 per cent in the same period of the previous year.
"Already across industry there is hope for upward trend in coming quarters. We are quite confident of achieving 20 per cent growth by March 31, 2015," he said.
He said the bank would put emphasis on increasing the total retail and SME portfolio from the current 71 per cent to 75 per cent while exposure on large corporates will come down from 29 per cent to 25 per cent.
The bank currently has about 361 branches and 641 ATM centres, serving 2.41 million customers. It planned to add 75 more branches and was waiting for Reserve Bank's approval, Sharma said.
