Bank of Maharashtra (BoM) reported a 25 per cent increase in standalone net profit at ₹101 crore in the first quarter ended June 30against ₹81 crore in the year-ago quarter.
The public sector bank’s bottomline in the reporting quarter was supported by lower loan-loss provision burden of ₹409 crore (₹1,037 crore in the year-ago quarter) on the back of improvement in asset quality.
Net interest income (difference between interest earned and interest expended) was up 9 per cent at ₹1,088 crore (₹997 crore).
Other income (comprising commission, income and brokerage, net profit on investment and recovery in written-off accounts, among others) was down 12 per cent at ₹369 crore (₹419 crore).
Net interest margin improved a tad sequentially to 2.43 per cent (2.41 per cent in the preceding quarter). However, it was down vis-a-vis year-ago quarter’s 2.59 per cent.
Asset quality improves
Fresh slippages came down substantially to ₹77 crore in the reporting quarter against ₹942 crore in the preceding quarter and ₹1,731 crore in the year-ago quarter.
Gross non-performing assets (NPAs) declined to 10.93 per cent of gross advances in the reporting quarter against 12.81 per cent in the preceding quarter.
Net NPAs too declined to 4.10 per cent of net advances in the reporting quarter against 4.77 per cent in the preceding quarter.
Non-performing loan provision coverage ratio (PCR), including technically write-offs, as on June 30improved to 85.62 per cent from 81.24 per cent as on June 30, 2019.
The bank said 24 per cent of its customers availed the regulatory moratorium on term loans. It sanctioned Covid-19 related loans aggregating ₹2,500 crore to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) during the quarter.
During the quarter ended June 30, 2020, BoM made Covid-related provisions of ₹275 crore.
As of June-end 2020, gross advances nudged up 4 per cent year-on-year (yoy) to ₹96,621 crore (₹93,032 as of June-end 2019), mainly on the back of 35 per cent y-o-y growth in loans to MSMEs and 31 per cent yoy growth in retail advances. Corporate and other loans de-grew 15 per cent.
Total deposits increased 10 per cent y-o-y to ₹1,52,987 crore (₹1,38,941 crore). The share of low-cost current account, savings account (CASA) in total deposits improved to 49.56 per cent (48.08 per cent).