Public sector lender Union Bank today reported a steep 27 per cent decline in net profit at Rs 579 crore in the March quarter on higher provisions and fall in non-interest income.
"Higher provisioning for non-performing assets in the quarter led to fall in profit," bank's Chairman and Managing Director Arun Tiwari told reporters.
Provisioning during the three-month period stood at Rs 920 crore as against Rs 655 crore a year ago as gross non- performing assets rose to 4.08 per cent from 2.98 per cent, while net NPAs moved up to 2.33 per cent as against 1.61 per cent.
For the full fiscal, the bank's net profit dropped 21.4 per cent to Rs 1,696 crore.
Non-interest income for the quarter stood at Rs 775 crore as against Rs 875 crore a year ago.
The bank had a fresh slippage of Rs 1,200 crore in the quarter and restructured Rs 1,435 crore worth of loans in the period. It sold Rs 320 crore of bad loans in the fourth quarter.
Net interest income in Q4 was up 3.6 per cent to Rs 2,052 crore from Rs 1,980 crore.
Its domestic net interest margins (NIM) stood at 2.62 per cent in Q4, while global NIM was at 2.55 per cent.
The bank sees its margins improving to 2.9 per cent in FY'15.
Global business grew 11.8 per cent to Rs 5,32,007 crore in FY14 from Rs 4,75,673 crore.
Domestic deposits increased by 12.2 per cent to Rs 2,92,811 crore, while global deposits rose 12.9 per cent to Rs 2,97,675 crore.
Casa deposits grew 7.6 per cent to Rs 87,801 crore and Casa share in the total deposits stood at 29.5 per cent.
Domestic advances increased 9 per cent to Rs 2,16,751 crore and global advances was up 10.6 per cent to Rs 2,34,332 crore.
International business in the year rose 42.2 per cent to Rs 22,445 crore from Rs 15,780 crore.
Tiwari sees credit growth in the current fiscal at 10-12 per cent and deposits at 9-10 per cent.
He said the bank has headroom to raise additional Tier I capital of Rs 4,000 crore in the year. The bank also plans to raise Rs 1,400 crore through QIP route in the second quarter.
