Bank of Maharashtra net profit jumps to Rs 165 cr in March quarter

This was mainly due to a decline in gross NPAs

Bank of Maharashtra on Thursday reported a more than two-fold rise in its standalone net profit at Rs 165.08 crore in the three months ended March 2021, mainly due to a decline in gross NPAs.

The Pune-headquartered lender had a net profit of Rs 57.57 crore in the year-ago period.

Total income increased to Rs 4,332.99 crore in Q4FY21 as against Rs 3,198.30 crore in the same period a year ago, Bank of Maharashtra said in a regulatory filing.

The bank's asset quality improved significantly as the gross bad loans or the gross Non-Performing Assets (NPAs) dipped to 7.23 per cent of the gross advances by the end of March 2021 as against 12.81 per cent during the same period of 2020.

In absolute terms, gross bad loans stood at Rs 7,779.68 crore at the end of March 2021, lower than Rs 12,152.15 crore recorded in the year-ago period.

Net NPAs came down to 2.48 per cent (Rs 2,544.32 crore) from 4.77 per cent (Rs 4,145.38 crore). Provisions for bad loans and contingencies were raised to Rs 1,310.76 crore in the latest March quarter from Rs 910.11 crore in the year-ago period.

The bank said it holds Rs 583.47 crore as COVID-related provision up from Rs 75 crore set aside at the end of March 2020.

For the full year 2020-21, the bank's standalone net profit jumped nearly 42 per cent to Rs 550.25 crore. In the year-ago period, the same stood at Rs 388.58 crore.

In FY21, the bank said it changed the method of recoginising income from locker rent and had the old method continued, the profit in the latest March quarter would have been down by Rs 8.73 crore.

According to the lender, it utilised the share premium of Rs 6,902.76 crore as on March 31, 2020 and balance amount of Rs 446.74 crore from its special reserve for setting off its accumulated loss.

"The adjusted accumulated losses as of March 31, 2021 is nil", it noted.

Bank of Maharashtra said it reported as many as 20 accounts as fraud in the March quarter.

"The total amount involved was Rs 335.92 crore. In respect of loans and advances classified as fraud, bank is holding 100 per cent provision," it said.

On returning the compound interest to eligible borrowers following RBI circular consequent to Supreme Court order in March, the lender said it is in the process of implementing the methodology suggested by IBA to calculate such amounts and has made adhoc provision of Rs 65 crore.

Shares of the lender rose 3.77 per cent to close at Rs 24.75 apiece on BSE.