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A higher provisioning towards non-performing assets and a conscious strategy to keep a tight leash on balance sheet growth weighed down Punjab National Bank’s bottomline performance for 2012-13.
The public sector bank’s fourth quarter net profit declined 20.6 per cent to Rs 1,131 crore (against Rs 1,424 crore in the corresponding period last fiscal).
The bottomline for the entire financial year 2012-13 dipped 2.8 per cent to Rs 4,748 crore (Rs 4,884 crore).
The tepid financial performance notwithstanding, PNB on Thursday declared a dividend of 270 percent (Rs 27 a share of Rs 10 each) as compared to 220 per cent (Rs 22 a share of Rs 10 each) in the previous year.
The dividend payout to shareholders for 2012-13 will be about Rs 900 crore, K.R.Kamath, Chairman and Managing Director, PNB, told a press conference here.
After a capital infusion of about Rs 1,250 crore last year, the Centre has 57.9 per cent stake in the bank.
Kamath also said that the bank would move away from an earlier strategy of consolidation and aim at deposit and advances growth of 2 per centage points over and above the projections made by the central bank for the banking industry during 2013-14.
For the current fiscal, RBI sees deposits in the banking system growing by 14 per cent and advances by 15 per cent.
In 2012-13, PNB’s deposits grew 3.2 per cent and advances by 5.1 per cent, mainly due to a conscious decision of consolidation.
WORSENING NPA
Gross NPAs of the bank for 2012-13 increased 54.4 per cent to Rs 13,465.80 crore (Rs 8,719.63 crore). As a percentage of advances, it stood at 4.27 per cent as of end-March 2013, much higher than the 2.93 per cent in end-March 2012.
Net NPAs in end-March 2013 stood at Rs 7,236.51 crore (Rs 4,454.24 crore). Kamath said it would be difficult to provide a number on where the NPAs would settle during the current financial year, but added that all efforts are on to improve the picture through focused recovery efforts.
SINGAPORE BRANCH
PNB has received Reserve Bank of India approval to open a branch in Singapore.
Kamath said the bank will look to undertake wholesale banking at this branch. PNB will soon approach the monetary authority of Singapore and apply for the branch licence.
Makes part recovery of Kingfisher Airlines’ dues
Punjab National Bank has realised about Rs 70 crore from State Bank of India’s recent move to sell off certain pledged UB Group shares in the market.
SBI, as leader of the 17-bank consortium, had offloaded certain pledged shares to part-recover the Rs 7,000 crore that the beleaguered Kingfisher Airlines (KFA) owed to these banks.
Till date, the consortium has recovered about Rs 800-1,000 crore, SBI Chairman, Pratip Chaudhuri, had said a few days back.
“What we have got (about Rs 70 crore) is our complete share of the money realised by the consortium from recent sale of certain pledged share,” Rakesh Sethi, Executive Director of PNB, told Business Line here.
PNB has a total exposure of close to Rs 800 crore to the grounded airlines.
The bank has already provided for this exposure in its books of account.
Sethi expressed confidence over PNB recovering the balance amount, noting that the consortium had good collateral for their exposure to KFA.
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