State-owned Syndicate Bank today reported 2 per cent growth in net profit to Rs 417 crore, during the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2014-15, on higher provisioning for bad loans.
Bank's net profit in the corresponding January-March quarter of previous fiscal stood at Rs 409 crore.
Total income of the bank during the quarter is Rs 6,599.13 crore, against Rs 5,357.4 crore in the year-ago period.
"Reason why the net profit grew only two per cent is because we have made good provision, higher provision," Syndicate Bank Executive Director T K Srivastava told reporters here.
Gross NPA ratio stood at 3.13 per cent in fourth quarter of 2014-15 as against 2.62 per cent in Q4, 2013-14. Net NPA ratio was 1.90 per cent as against 1.56 per cent.
For the entire 2014-15 fiscal, the bank posted 11 per cent decline in net profit to Rs 1,522.93 crore, compared with Rs 1,711.46 crore in the previous financial year. The total annual income increased to Rs 23,724.75 crore, compared with Rs 19,945.21 crore.
The yield on advances of the bank stood at 9.23 per cent during the quarter, as against 9.65 per cent a year ago. The Capital Adequacy Ratio (Basel III) of the bank stood at 10.54 per cent as on March 31, as against 11.41 per cent last year.
Srivastava said the bank is planning to open 355 new branches in 2015-16 and also to recruit 5000 personnel in clerical and official cadre.
Bank has planned to open 8 "State of the Art Branches" and 100 "Fast Track branches" in the near future, he said, adding that it has opened 37 mid-corporate branches till now and another 13-14 branches will be opened in the next two to three months.
He said that in order to augment long term resources and further strengthen the Capital Base, it proposes to raise Equity Capital by way of Rights Issue/QIP (Domestic/ Foreign)/Follow on public issue based on market conditions and approach the market for Basel III compliant additional Tier I bonds and Tier II bonds.
On reducing interest rate in the near future, Srivastava said: "Definitely, going forward we will definitely reduce the interest rate...Probably in a month's time, but that cut will be very nominal."
The Bank's board has recommended a final dividend of 47 per cent.
