OBC posts Rs 22-cr net in March qtr

The bank had posted a net loss of Rs 178.4 cr in the corresponding quarter of the previous financial year

Oriental Bank of Commerce (OBC) on Wednesday reported a net profit of Rs 21.6 crore for the March quarter, helped by a tax write-back of Rs 161 crore. The bank had posted a net loss of Rs 178.4 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous financial year.

OBC’s non-performing assets or bad loans rose sharply in during the January-March quarter of 2015-16. The total income of the bank declined to Rs 5,451.6 crore during the quarter under review as against Rs 5,719.4 crore in the January-March quarter of 2014-15.

Interest income during the fourth quarter also declined marginally to Rs 4,958.35 crore, compared with Rs 5,090.86 crore a year ago.

The bank witnessed deterioration in asset quality with gross non-performing assets (NPAs), as a percentage of total advances, rising significantly to 9.57 per cent in the quarter under review, from 5.18 per cent in the year-ago period.

At the same time, the net NPA also rose to 6.70 per cent from 3.34 per cent in the same quarter of the previous fiscal.

Fresh addition to NPA during the quarter jumped to Rs 4,019 crore as against Rs 762.18 crore in the same period a year ago.

Despite increase in NPAs, the bank's provisioning for bad loans during the quarter under review declined to Rs 1,026.11 crore, from Rs 1,106.57 crore in the March quarter of the previous fiscal.

During the quarter, the bank sold assets worth Rs 190 crore to asset reconstruction companies, Chauhan said.

For the full fiscal, the bank's net profit dipped 69 per cent to Rs 156 crore as against Rs 497 crore in the preceding fiscal.

Total income declined to Rs 21,824.99 crore in 2015-16 compared with Rs 22,082.78 crore in the previous fiscal.

OBC has declared a 7 per cent dividend or Rs 0.70 per share of face value of Rs 10 for year ended March 31, 2016.

During the fiscal, the net interest margin (NIM) was 2.66 per cent. Capital adequacy of the bank under BASEL-III was 11.76 per cent compared with 11.41 per cent as on March, 2015.