Bank of Baroda reports net profit of Rs 253 crore in Q3

The interest expenses reduced by 8.05% to Rs 7,272 crore from Rs 7,909 crore

State-run Bank of Baroda Friday reported a net profit of Rs 253 crore in the quarter ended December led by lower cost of deposits and higher treasury income.

The bank had reported a net loss of Rs 3,342 crore in the same period last year.

"The growth in profit was due to the fall in cost of deposit to 5.8 per cent from 6 per cent a year ago, treasury gains and various cost control measures taken by the bank," bank's managing director and CEO P S Jayakumar told reporters here.

The bank' treasury non-interest income stood at the level of Rs 1,094 crore in quarter ended December 31,2016.

Its total expenses declined by 4.36 per cent to Rs 9,586 crore in the quarter driven primarily by reduction in cost of deposits.

The interest expenses reduced by 8.05 per cent to Rs 7,272 crore from Rs 7,909 crore.

The net interest margin (NIM) for domestic operations stood at 2.49 per cent while global margin stood at 2.06 per cent.

Gross non-performing assets of the bank increased to 11.40 per cent as against 9.68 per cent, while net NPA stood at 5.43 per cent from 5.67 per cent.

Total provisions during the quarter reduced by 53.59 per cent to Rs 2,342 crore in the quarter from Rs 5,046 crore in the year-ago period.

Bank's recovery improved to Rs 1,345 crore as against Rs 311 crore in the third quarter of the financial year 2015-16. It upgraded Rs 1,322 crore of loans while wrote off Rs 1,775 crore of loans.

Fresh slippages in the quarter stood at Rs 3,073 crore. Total restructured standard assets were Rs 14,059 crore. The provision coverage ratio (PCR) improved to 64.50 per cent.

Jayakumar said the bank raised Rs 1,000 cr so far in the current fiscal through additional tier I bond and may not raise capital in the fourth quarter.

"We still have got the headroom for raising capital to the tune of Rs 3,000 crore in the next fiscal, which may be in the form of either core equity or AT-I bonds. But we are yet to take any call on that," he said.

Total business stood at Rs 9,39,819 crore as at December 31, 2016 down from Rs 9,73,959 crore last year same period on account of planned and structured rundown of assets and liabilities.

Total deposits were at Rs 5,89,859 crore and advances stood at Rs 3,49,960 crore.

The bank's scrip ended at Rs 188.05, up 1.98 per cent on BSE which closed at 28,334.25, up 0.02 per cent.