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Punjab & Sind Bank (PSB) has written to the government seeking its approval for a capital raising of ₹250 crore this fiscal, its Managing Director & CEO Swarup Kumar Saha said on Tuesday.
“Our merchant bankers are also nearly on board. We were waiting for the results. We will now move on that story. Once we get the nod from the majority stakeholder (government we will start working on that,“ Saha told businessline when asked about the status of capital raising plans.
The timing of the issue will depend on the market conditions, he said. PSB is primarily looking for equity raising, but options are open for both (debt and equity), Saha added.
Saha also said that PSB will this year aim for credit growth of about 13 per cent and continue its enhanced focus on retail (RAM) segment. PSB is aiming for net interest margin of over 2.95 per cent this fiscal, he added. The bank aims to have 55:45 per cent share by the end of this fiscal between retail and corporate segment for its loan book, Saha added.
Q4 results, dividend
Aided by a good recovery in technical written-off accounts, PSB on Tuesday reported a 32 per cent increase in net profit for the quarter ended March 31, 2023, at ₹457 crore (₹346 crore). The public sector bank recorded a net profit of ₹373 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2022.
For the quarter under review, PSB’s total income stood at ₹2,652 crore, up 32 per cent over ₹2,008 crore in the same quarter last fiscal. For the entire fiscal year 2022-23, PSB has recorded a highest-ever net profit of ₹1,313 crore, up 26.37 per cent over net profit of ₹1,039 crore in the previous fiscal.
The Board of Directors of the bank on Tuesday declared a dividend of ₹0.48 per equity share (4.8 per cent) of the face value of ₹10 each. For the quarter ended September 30, 2022, PSB reported a net profit of ₹278 crore and a net profit of ₹205 crore in June 2022 quarter.
Saha also expressed confidence that PSB will be able to sustain its bottomline growth performance in the current fiscal as well. With the government giving directions to banks to focus on recovery from written off accounts, PSB has already embarked on achieving milestones on this front, a senior bank official said.
“We will certainly be achieving this fiscal the 40 per cent guidance (recovery from written-off accounts) that the government is emphasising. We will be in fact, recovering more,” said Ramjas Yadav, Executive Director, PSB.
Saha highlighted that the bank had handsome recovery in written off accounts in the March 2023 quarter. “As industry scales up in recovery of written off accounts, we will also scale up,” he added.
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