J&K Bank is targeting to grow its post-tax profit by 25 per cent to Rs 1,300 crore this fiscal despite the economic gloom and certain hit on banks’ bottom-lines due to mid-July liquidity tightening measures by the Reserve Bank, a top official has said.
“I am sure we will achieve 25 per cent growth in the total business and net profit will also grow by an equal measure to Rs 1,300 crore this fiscal,” its chairman and chief executive Mushtaq Ahmad told a select group of journalists recently.
Ahmad said the total business of the bank, which crossed the Rs 1 trillion-mark last fiscal, will touch Rs 1.25 trillion by the end of this fiscal.
He said the bank was sticking to its targets despite ongoing troubles, both on account of the dip in growth and due to the liquidity tightening by the RBI to prop the battered rupee on July 15, which can hit the bottom-line.
However, he pointed to the one-time dispensation given by RBI where it allowed banks to value SLR holdings as on July 14 to help banks avoid treasury losses and also underlined that the bank has a contingency reserve of Rs 87 crore created during better times, which can be utilised.
The strategy of the bank, which is owned by the state and is the only publicly-traded company from Jammu & Kashmir, is to accrue deposits in the state and lend it outside the state for better yields, Ahmad said, adding over a half of the deposits in J&K fall under the low-cost current and savings account category.
Ahmad said the bank will also maintain its net interest margin at over 4 per cent, one of the highest in the industry, for the fiscal.
Reacting to Finance Minister P Chidambaram’s advice to expand outside its home state and also internationally, Ahmad said it will be opening up to 20 branches outside the state this fiscal in Maharashtra, Kerala, Karnataka and Delhi.