SBT net profit grows 20.49%

State Bank of Travancore said its net profit for financial year 2012-13 has grown 20.49 per cent to Rs 615.04 crore compared with Rs 510.46 crore earned during the previous financial year, and achieved a milestone when its total business crossed the mark of Rs 1,50,000 crore. Despite a marginal decline in Net Interest Margin (NIM) from 2.76 per cent to 2.56 per cent at the end of this financial year, the bank posted an operating profit of Rs 1,351 crore against Rs 1,249 crore last year.

Briefing reporters on SBT's financial performance for 2012-13, Managing Director P Nanda Kumar said net interest income grew 12.12 per cent to Rs 2,128 crore from Rs 1,898 crore in FY12.

Total income in FY13 stood at Rs 9,287.86 crore from Rs 7,477.04 crore in FY12, marking a growth of 24.22 per cent.

Net profit was Rs 165.98 crore against Rs 153.04 crore in the same quarter last year, he said. The bank declared a dividend of Rs 20 per share for a face value of Rs 10.

Kumar said overall business turnover registered a growth of 19.94 per cent and stood at Rs 1,52,108 crore in FY13 against Rs 1,26,816 crore during last year with deposits accounting for Rs 84,624 crore (Rs 71,470 crore) and advances at Rs 67,484 crore (Rs 55,346 crore).

The percentage of gross NPA to gross advances stood at 2.56 per cent, he said. Kumar said the bank opened 134 new branches in 2012-13 taking the total number to 1,013 and plans to open about 200 more branches in 2013-14.

Meanwhile, the bank today inaugurated its third network office in the city, the first outside Kerala, Kumar said. To a query on the possible merger of the associate bank with State Bank of India, he said, "it is premature for us to speculate anything right now. It is for the regulators to take a call on that."