Indian Bank Q3 net down 19% to Rs 3 bn on higher operating expenses

Indian Bank on Monday reported a fall of nearly 19 per cent in net profit at Rs 3.03 billion for the third quarter ended December 31, due to higher operating expenses, provisioning and contingency reserve.

The public sector bank had registered a net profit of Rs 3.73 billion in the corresponding October-December period of previous fiscal.

Total income was up at Rs 49.03 billion from Rs 45.57 billion in the year-ago period.

Operating expenses of the bank rose to Rs 9.62 billion for the quarter from Rs 8.25 billion in the same quarter previous year.

The lender improved on its asset quality, with gross non-performing assets (NPAs) falling to 6.27 per cent of the gross advances by the end of December 31, 2017 as against 7.69 per cent by end-December 2016.

Net NPAs or bad loans also came down to 3.30 per cent of the net advances against 4.76 per cent.

Gross NPAs were Rs 95.95 billion as on December 31, 2017 against Rs 96.75 billion. Net NPAs were Rs 48.98 billion, as against Rs 57.98 billion.

Provisions and contingencies were raised to Rs 9.18 billion for third quarter of 2017-18 against Rs 5.40 billion for the same quarter of previous fiscal, the bank said in a regulatory filing.

However, provisioning for bad loans fell to Rs 3.85 billion for the third quarter of 2017-18 against Rs 5.46 billion in the year-ago period.

Non-performing loan provision coverage ratio stood at 64.73 per cent as on December 31, 2017.

Indian Bank stock traded 5.83 per cent up at Rs 359.15 on BSE.