Suryoday Small Finance Bank reports 89% dip in profit to Rs 12 cr in FY21

Suryoday Small Finance Bank (SFB) on Thursday reported an 89 per cent decline in its net profit to nearly Rs 12 crore for the financial year ended March 2021.

The bank, which was listed on the bourses in late-March 2021, had reported a net profit of Rs 110.94 crore in the previous year, the bank said in a regulatory filing.

It reported widening of its net loss to Rs 43 crore in the March 2021 quarter, compared with Rs 15.5 crore a year ago.

"Profit after tax (PAT) fell 89 per cent year-on-year for FY21 to Rs 11.9 crore compared to FY20.

"The lower profitability is due to additional provisioning on increased NPA (non-performing assets) and additional floating provision of 1.5 per cent amounting to Rs 37.5 crore on inclusive finance portfolio due to uncertainty related to second wave of COVID-19, and lower disbursement during FY21," Suryoday SFB said.

Disbursements during the year saw a growth of 28 per cent year-on-year to Rs 2,217 crore, predominantly due to uncertainty relating to COVID-19.

For the fourth quarter, it was up by 36 per cent at Rs 1,058 crore. Also, it disbursed Rs 95.2 crore as ECLGS loans during the year, it said.

The Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) was announced by the government in May last year, aimed at providing unsecured loans to MSMEs and business owners to tide over the pandemic-induced economic stress.

Total income in the quarter under review also fell to Rs 186.36 crore, from Rs 227.78 crore in the year-ago period.

For the full financial year 2020-21, the company's income rose 2.5 per cent to Rs 875.63 crore as against Rs 854.14 crore in 2019-20.

"Due to one-time impact on interest reversal; interest income, total income and NIM (net interest margin) for the fourth quarter FY21 may not be comparable to other periods," it said.

The net interest income was down by 16 per cent at Rs 410.5 crore in FY21.

"Fall in the net interest income in Q4FY21 was mainly due to interest reversal for the entire year on accounts classification as NPA during FY21, effected in last quarter of 2020-21 post Supreme Court judgment on March 23, 2021," it said.

The Supreme Court had asked the banks to return the compound interest or the interest on interest for period during March-August 2020 in view of the moratorium facility granted to the borrowers hit by the pandemic.

Provisions for bad loans and contingencies for 2020-21 was higher at Rs 169.24 crore, against Rs 151.86 crore a year ago. However, for the fourth quarter, the provisions were down at Rs 52.73 crore from Rs 94.32 crore in the year-ago quarter.

On the assets front, the bank's gross non-performing assets (NPAs) or bad loans soared to 9.41 per cent of the gross advances by the end of March 2021 as against 2.79 per cent by March 2020.

In value terms, the gross advances swelled to Rs 393.68 crore from Rs 101.25 crore.

Net NPAs also moved up at 4.73 per cent (Rs 188.12 crore), from 0.57 per cent (Rs 20.37 crore).

Suryoday SFB's shares closed 0.36 per cent higher at Rs 237.70 apiece on the BSE.