Allahabad Bank profit rises 28%

BS 200 SCORECARD

Allahabad Bank reported 27.57 per cent growth in net profit for the quarter ended December 31, 2006, to Rs 286.13 crore against Rs 224.30 crore in the corresponding quarter last financial year.

Total interest income grew by 38 per cent to Rs 1304.96 crore from Rs 945.59 crore. The bank reduced its non-performing assets (NPA) ratio to 0.72 per cent in the quarter against 0.75 per cent in the second quarter.

The bank's priority sector lending recorded 26.17 per cent growth to Rs 14715 crore , while retail credit grew to Rs 6602 crore during the period. Allahabad Bank chairman and managing director A C Mahajan said the bank was comfortable with its capital adequacy ratio at 12.8 per cent and there were no plans to raise capital now.

The bank is expected to operationalise its overseas branch at Hong Kong by February and will bring 400 branches under the core banking solution (CBS).

The bank had already increased interest rates for deposits by 25 basis points for the time buckets of 91 days and above.