Bandhan Bank's PBT slips 31% to Rs 693 cr on Covid-19 provisioning

The net interest income (NII) of the bank for the quarter grew by about 34 per cent to Rs 1,680 crore, against Rs 1,258 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous year

Provisioning on account of the Covid-19 pandemic dragged Bandhan Bank’s profit before tax (PBT) by nearly 31 per cent in the March quarter of FY20 at Rs 693.32 crore, as against Rs 999.92 crore in the year-ago period.
 

For FY20, the bank, however, saw a 35 per cent rise in PBT at Rs 4,053 crore.
 

The bank made a provision of about Rs 690 crore on account of Covid-19 in the last quarter. In the last ten days of March alone, Chief Financial Officer Sunil Samdani said, the bank lost on a potential loan book growth of about Rs 2,000-2,500 crore due to the pandemic.

In addition, the bank carries additional standard asset provision on microfinance portfolio at 0.75 per cent amounting to Rs 310 crore. About 13 per cent of mortgage loans and 35 per cent of SME loans were under moratorium last month. In the MFI segment, 100 per cent moratorium was availed of by customers in April.
 

The net interest income (NII) of the bank for the quarter grew by 34 per cent to Rs 1,680 crore, against Rs 1,258 crore in the same period a year ago.

The bank’s deposit portfolio grew by 32 per cent on year-on-year basis, whereas the loan portfolio increased by 60 per cent. Excluding Gruh portfolio, the deposit growth was 29 per cent, while loan growth was 20 per cent. Advances on account of Gruh accounted for about 25 per cent of the bank’s loan book.
 

Also, on account of merger with Gruh, the overall microfinance portfolio of the bank came down to 64 per cent of total advances as of March 31, as against 86 per cent at the end of FY19.

The non-performing assets (NPA) of the bank remained under control, as the bank gross NPA stood at 1.5 per cent (2 per cent), while net NPA stood at 0.6 per cent (0.6 per cent), at the of Q4 of FY20. 
 

The bank added nearly 1 million customers during the last quarter, with the total customer base of about 20 million as of March 31. The number of bank branches grew from 986 to 1,018, while the number of doorstep banking services outlets increased from 3,014 to 3,541 between FY19 and FY20.
 

The results are not strictly comparable on a quarter-on-quarter basis, as in the third quarter of the last financial year, the bank completed the acquisition of Gruh Finance, which led to a healthy rise in the yearly profit, according to Samdani.