Bank of Baroda (BoB) net up 20% to Rs 1,033 crore, maintains future guidance

MUMBAI: Bank of Baroda ( BoB) today reported a 20 per cent jump in net profit for the first quarter ended June 30 to Rs 1,033 crore, and the state-run lender maintained its guidance for future growth though saying there will be pressures.

At a time when its peer public sector banks like Union Bank of India and Bank of India showed a decline in profits, factors such as restricting non-performing assets movement helped BoB to achieve a jump in bottomline.

The bank's net interest income (NII) for the three- month period ended June 30 stood at Rs 2,297 crore, up 23.6 per cent, while tepid money market conditions led to other income being up 3.8 per cent at Rs 640.87 crore, though the fees and commissions registered good growth, BoB Chairman and Managing Director M D Mallya told reporters here.

BoB maintained its credit growth target of up to 24 per cent for the current fiscal, unlike other lenders like UBI who have cut it due to weak economic conditions, he said.

The bank's Chief Economist, Rupa Rege Nitsure, attributed the above industry average credit growth to BoB's concentration in the industrially progressive states like Gujarat and Maharashtra.

The bank's net interest margin for the quarter under review slipped by 3 basis points over last year to 2.87 per cent, while sequentially the narrowing was much more sharper as the NIMs for March 2011 quarter had stood at 3.45 per cent.