Uco Bank reports four-fold rise in Q2 net profit

KOLKATA: State-run Uco Bank has reported a four-fold rise in net profit on 55 per cent higher net interest income offsetting the rise in bad loans. Net profit was Rs 400 crore for the September quarter as compared with Rs 104 crore in the year ago period.

Net interest income rose 55 per cent at Rs 1570 crore over last time's Rs 1013 crore. Net interest margin or NIM improved to 2.84 per cent from 2.24 per cent a year ago.

"Cost of deposit came down because of rise in CASA (low-cost deposits) and shedding of bulk deposits. This helped improvement in NIM," Uco chairman and managing director Arun Kaul said. Operating profit of the lender was Rs 1166 crore for the period under review, 64 per cent more than Rs 714 crore in the corresponding period last fiscal.

The bank's asset quality continued to remain under pressure with gross NPA ratio deteriorating to 5.32 per cent from 4.88 per cent a year ago.