Allahabad Bank Q2 net up 21% to Rs 488 cr

Public sector lender Allahabad Bank has reported a 21.22% jump in net profit to Rs 488.01 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2011.

The bank had posted a net profit of Rs 402.57 crore for the second quarter last fiscal.

The operating profit of the bank increased by 21.47% to Rs 949.29 crore during the quarter from Rs 781.53 crore in the year-ago period.

The bank's net interest margin (NIM) was 3.68% during the second quarter, as against 3.34% in the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal, Allahabad Bank Chairman and Managing Director J P Dua said while announcing the results here today.

He said there was no concern regarding asset quality so far and the bank was able to recover Rs 443 crore during the first half of the current fiscal.

The percentage of the bank's gross non-performing assets (NPA) to gross advances was flat at 1.77% during the quarter, while the percentage of its net NPAs to net advances declined from 0.79% to 0.69%, Dua said.

He said the bank had approached the government for a capital infusion of Rs 1,000 crore. The bank's capital adequacy ratio (CAR) stood at 12.99% at the end of September, 2011.

With business touching Rs 2,38,897 crore at the end of the second quarter, Dua said the bank was confident it would increase to Rs 2,80,000 crore by the end of this fiscal.

On new initiatives, he said the bank will install 2,000 point-of-sales (POS) terminals in the country by the end of March, 2012.

The bank has also applied for licenses for opening overseas branches in Shangai, Singapore, Dhaka and Kowloon in Hong Kong. The bank already has a branch in Hong Kong.