Comments
Muted credit off-take and higher provisioning towards non-performing assets dragged down Andhra Bank’s net profit for the quarter ended June 30, 2012, by about six per cent.
The bank reported a net profit of Rs 361.83 crore during the quarter, as against Rs 385.71 crore in the year-ago period. Its total income was Rs 3,357.22 crore, up from Rs 2,851.18 crore.
The bank’s Chairman and Managing Director B.A. Prabhakar said credit offtake, especially corporate loans, has been tardy during the quarter. He expected credit growth to touch 17-18 per cent for the year.
The bank’s provisioning towards NPAs during the quarter was Rs 157.25 crore (Rs 117 crore). Its gross NPAs, at Rs 2,358 crore, rose to 2.72 per cent at the end of the quarter, from 2.12 per cent on March 31, 2012.
Its net interest income in the quarter grew 3.1 per cent to touch Rs 938 crore.
Prabhakar said the recent cut in Statutory Liquidity Ratio by one percentage point will provide an additional liquidity of Rs 1,500 crore for the bank. “We have not yet taken a call on whether to cut interest rates,” he said.
Branch expansion
On expansion plans, he said the bank was adding 200 new branches this year to its current network of 1,716. It was setting up 200 new ATMs, with about 45 per cent to be located in rural areas.
The lender’s retail lending portfolio is about 13 per cent of its total lending, with plans to increase it to 15 per cent this fiscal.
Comments
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.