Punjab & Sind Bank Q3 net up 8.6% at Rs 135 cr

Punjab & Sind Bank (PSB) today reported an 8.6 per cent jump in net profit to Rs 135.3 crore for the third quarter ended December, 2010.

The state-run lender -- which got listed on the stock exchanges in December, the last nationalised bank in the country to do so -- had posted a net profit of Rs 124.6 crore for the same quarter a year ago.

The bank's net profit was pulled down somewhat on account of the need to provision Rs 50 crore toward a second pension option scheme benefiting existing and retired employees that had not opted for the original plan.

The bank's total income rose by 27.7 per cent to Rs 1,352.48 crore during the quarter from Rs 1,058.8 crore in the previous fiscal, PSB Executive Director P K Anand told reporters here.

The net interest margin (NIM) of the bank stood at 2.58 per cent at the end of December, 2010.

"We will be happy to touch 3 per cent for the whole year (2010-11)," he said, adding, "Going forward, we are going to have balanced growth and maintain margins."

"Total business of the bank has crossed Rs 90,000 crore at the end of December, 2010," he said.

Advances grew by 36.6 per cent to Rs 37,806 crore, while deposits increased by 25.7 per cent to Rs 52,715 crore, by the end of December, 2010.

For the nine months ended December, 2010, PSB's net profit grew by 10.1 per cent to Rs 395 crore from Rs 359 crore in the same period last fiscal.

At the same time, the bank's total income rose to Rs 3,884 crore from Rs 3,116.3 crore in the same period a year ago.

In addition, the bank's gross Non-Performing Assets (NPAs) increased to 0.91 per cent of total credit from 0.85 per cent at the end of December, 2009.

Net NPAs also rose to 0.44 per cent of total assets from 0.37 per cent at the end of the third quarter last fiscal.

Last month, PSB got listed on the BSE and NSE after its initial public offer (IPO) was over-subscribed about 50 times.

The IPO proceeds will be utilised for business expansion, as well as the bank's credit growth requirement over the next two to three years.

The bank has announced plans to enhance its network to over 1,000 branches by March, 2011, as against 949 branches at present. It also plans to add around 90 ATMs during the current fiscal to improve its delivery channels.

The government's holding in the bank has come down to 82 per cent following the IPO. Earlier, it held the entire 100 per cent stake in the company.

Founded way back in 1908 in Amritsar, the bank was nationalised in April, 1980, during the second wave of bank nationalisation by then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.