South Indian Bank reports Rs 7 crore net profit in March quarter

South Indian Bank has reported a net profit of Rs 6.79 crore in the March quarter of FY21 against a loss of Rs 143.69 crore in the year-ago period. The net profit of the lender stood at Rs 61.91 crore against Rs 104.59 crore of the previous financial year.

Murali Ramakrishnan, managing director and chief executive of South Indian Bank, said the lower quarterly profit was mainly on the account of credit cost on the fresh slippages during the fourth quarter. This resulted in additional stress in the economy due to Covid pandemic.

The bank reported a net interest income of Rs 561 crore, down 6 per cent year-on-year (YoY) and while total income fell 4 per cent YoY to Rs 951 crore. Provisions and contingency of the lender dropped 43 per cent to Rs 412 crore in Q4FY21 compared to the same period last year.

Asset quality of the lender worsened YoY as gross non-performing assets (GNPAs) moved up by 2 per cent to 6.98 per cent but sequentially it was down by 30 basis points. Net NPAs moved up by 137 bps YoY to 4.71 per cent at the end of the March quarter but sequentially it was up by 50 bps.

“The bank has been able to meet the targeted levels of recovery/ upgrades which have helped in containing the GNPA level despite higher slippages numbers during the year on account of the Covid pandemic scenario. The provision coverage ratio of the bank has improved to 58.73 per cent from 54.22 per cent YoY,” said Ramakrishnan.