Andhra Bank net rises 62%

Andhra Bank reported a 61.93 per cent increase in net profit at Rs 201.21 crore for the quarter ended March 2009 compared with Rs 124.25 crore during the corresponding quarter last year on the back of higher interest income.

Interest income during the quarter increased by 31.15 per cent to Rs 1,506.7 crore compared with Rs 1,148.82 crore in the corresponding quarter last year.

For the year ended March 2009, net profit rose 12.56 per cent to Rs 656.05 crore compared with Rs 582.8 crore last year. Its total business jumped 23.6 per cent to Rs 103,818 crore compared with Rs 83,993 crore last year, while deposits stood at Rs 59,390 crore, up 20.13 per cent from Rs 49,437 crore last year.

Chairman and Managing Director RS Reddy said that the percentage of non-performing assets (NPAs) has gone up in the last two quarters due to the economic slowdown.

Net NPAs increased to 0.18 per cent from 0.15 per cent last year.

The bank made a provision of Rs 390.05 crore for 2008-09 for contingencies compared with Rs 139.37 crore in 2007-08 in view of its declining income on investment and increase in NPAs.

It restructured loans worth Rs 1,593 crore during the year, including Rs 315 crore for micro, small and medium enterprises, Rs 257 crore for housing, Rs 712 crore for industries and Rs 307 crore for agriculture, retail and educational and other sectors.

Reddy said that credit offtake has been slow during the last two quarters. While loans worth Rs 25,000 crore were sanctioned in the last six months, disbursals were only around Rs 12,000 crore. "There are new loan proposals coming up now," he said.

The bank has a headroom to raise of about Rs 3,000 crore, including Rs 1,270 crore in Tier I capital and Rs 1,730 crore Tier II capital, Reddy said.