PNB Q2 profit plunges 53% on higher provisioning

NPAs rise to 3.07% from 2.69% in the same period last year

Punjab National Bank (PNB) today reported a 52.56% drop in net profit to Rs 505.49 crore for the three months ended September, 2013 due to higher provisioning.

The country's second largest public sector bank by assets had reported a net profit of Rs 1,065.58 crore in the July- September quarter of 2012-13.

"The provision made during the quarter is Rs 2,029 crore as against Rs 1,467 crore last year, an increase of 38.31%," PNB Chairman and Managing Director K R Kamath said.

Depreciation on investment of Rs 443.10 crore against gain of Rs 14 crore and Rs 434 provision towards standard advances including standard restructuring against Rs 4 crore write back in the same period of the last fiscal pulled down the net profit, he said.

As far as asset quality of the bank is concerned, the gross NPAs as a percentage to total advances rose to 5.14% from 4.66% in the same quarter an year ago.

Its net NPAs went up to 3.07% from 2.69% at the end of September 2012.

Total income has increased to Rs 11,632.84 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2013 from Rs 11,335.17 crore in the same quarter last fiscal.

Meanwhile, the bank has raised fixed deposit rates by up to 0.5% across various maturities.

When asked about plan of raising base rate, Kamath said, "the bank has not taken any decision on increasing the minimum lending rate as of now."

Asked about the profit outlook for the current fiscal, he said, profit is likely to remain flat.

"I need to cover up whatever we have lost in these two quarters. Otherwise we should match with last year (2012-13)," he said.

As the consolidation phase is complete for the bank, he said, the next two quarters would be better compared the second quarter.

The bank had earned a net profit of Rs 4,747.67 crore in 2012-13 as against Rs 4,884.20 crore in the previous fiscal.

He further said, the government has decided to infuse Rs 500 crore in the current fiscal which will raise capital adequacy ratio (CAR) of the bank from the current level of 11.62% to 11.77%.

With ploughing back of the first half profit, the CAR can go up to Rs 12.31%.

During the quarter, total recovery was Rs 154 crore as against Rs 146 crore in the same period of the previous fiscal.

Operating profit of PNB remained flat Rs 2,535 crore as against from Rs 2,533 crore in the same period of the previous fiscal.

However, the net interest income improved by 10.1% to Rs 4,016 crore as compared to Rs 3,648 crore in the same quarter a year ago.

Net interest margin (NIM) stood at 3.47%, Kamath said, adding the bank aims NIM of 3.5% for the entire fiscal.

During the first half of 2012-13, the bank registered 22.95% decline in net profit to Rs 1,780.81 crore, compared to Rs 2,311.25 crore in the same period a year ago.

The bank reported a total income of Rs 23,379.43 crore in the first six months, compared to Rs 23,057.14 crore in the same period of previous financial year.

Total business of the bank as on September 30, stood at Rs 7,19,487 crore from Rs 6,95,534 crore at end of second quarter of previous fiscal, registering a marginal growth of 3.5%.