Backed by an improvement in interest margins, State-run Bank of Baroda has posted a 172.3 per cent rise in its fourth quarter net profit at Rs 752.69 crore as against Rs 276.44 crore in the year-ago period.

Its net interest margin for the quarter ended March 2009 improved to 3.17 per cent from 2.78 per cent a year ago. The improvement in margins was due to the control over interest costs, rise in interest earnings and high fee-based income, which gave a boost to the bank’s bottom line, CMD M D Mallya said.

The board has recommended a dividend of 90 per cent per share (face value Rs 10) for FY09. Total income for the reporting quarter rose to Rs 4,992.41 crore as against Rs 3,885.7 crore a year ago, whereas annual income rose from Rs 13,864.51 crore in 2007-08 to Rs 17,754.22 crore.

The total business grew by 30 per cent to Rs 3,36,383 crore from Rs 2,58,735 crore a year ago, while the total deposit base rose by 26.6 per cent to Rs 1,92,397 crore. The share of low cost deposits – current accounts and savings accounts – in domestic deposits declined by 80 basis points to 34.9 per cent at end of March 2009.

The advances rose by 34.9 per cent to Rs 1,43,986 crore from Rs 1,06,701 crore at the end of March 2008. Its retail credit rose 16.3 per cent to Rs 19,651 crore.

The bank has pegged 23-25 per cent growth in business (deposits and advances) in 2009-10. It plans to maintain at least 25 per cent growth in fee-based income and bring down cost-to-income ratio to 45 per cent or even below this level by end of March 2010.

Its gross non-performing assets declined to Rs 1,842.92 crore (1.27 per cent) as on March 31, 2009 from Rs 1,981.38 crore (1.84 per cent) a year ago, while the net NPAs also dropped to Rs 451.15 crore (0.31 per cent) from 493.55 crore (0.47 per cent).

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