Allahabad Bank Q3 net rises 4.6 per cent at Rs 325 crore

KOLKATA: Allahabad Bank today reported a marginal 4.6 per cent increase in net profit to Rs 325.36 crore for the October-December 2013 quarter.

The city-based state-owned bank had posted a net profit of Rs 310.83 crore in the third quarter of 2012-13.

Commenting on the results, banks Chairman and Managing Director Subhalakshmi Panse said that the quarter had been challenging for the bank with business registering a growth of 11 per cent.

She said the third quarter witnessed muted growth in relation to corporate advances. "That is why we have cautiously kept the deposit growth muted so that the C/D (credit/deposit) ratio does not decline," she told reporters here.

Panse said that the bank was aggressively pushing for higher proportion of CASA (current and savings account) deposits in overall deposits to bring down the cost.

The bank's credit growth was driven by sectors like priority sector lending, retail and MSME, Panse said.

Interest income of the bank showed a moderate growth due to reduction in base rate.

Sectors like iron, steel, textiles, food processing and cement showed a flat growth in terms of credit offtake, while for power it was negative.

Operating profit of the bank during the quarter increased 17.41 per cent at Rs 1010 crore.

She said that adequate provisioning had been made for doubtful and bad loans as well as possible wage revision of the staff.

Provisioning had increased 24.6 per cent at Rs 684 crore during the quarter.

Net interest margin (NIM) of the bank stood at 2.75 per cent at the end of the third quarter. Panse said the guidance of NIM for the fourth quarter was three per cent.

Both Gross NPA and Net NPA had shown a rise at 5.4 per cent and 4.19 per cent respectively.

Post infusion of the capital in the bank, government's holding in the bank stood at 58.9 per cent.