SIB Q3 net up 16% at Rs 62 cr

South Indian Bank (SIB) reported a 15.8 per cent increase in net profit at Rs 62.46 crore in the third quarter of current financial year as compared to Rs 54.20 crore in the same period of last fiscal.

Profit before tax (PBT) increased to Rs 98.74 crore in the period as against Rs 82.37 crore.

Total income went up to Rs 530.91 crore in the reporting quarter, including an interest income of Rs 487.79 crore and other income of Rs 43.12 crore, as against Rs 487.38 crore in the same period of last fiscal.

Total expenditure of the bank increased to Rs 412.71 crore as against Rs 387.19 crore in Q3 of last financial year. Net NPA percentage maintained the same level at 0.39 per cent as on December 31, 2009.

Total deposits increased from Rs 16,442.04 crore to Rs 20,643.23 crore by the end of last year and advances increased to Rs 14,868 crore, from Rs 11,340 crore. Deposits have grown up by 25.55 per cent and advances went up by 31.11 per cent.

Bank' total business increased to Rs 35,511 crore as against Rs 27,782 crore, registering a growth of 27.82 per cent.

The bank earned a net profit of Rs 195.14 crore in April–December period as against Rs 144.50 crore in the same period of last fiscal, registering a growth of 35.04 per cent. The net profit for the nine month period has exceeded the annual net profit of Rs 194.75 crore in 2008-09.

Total income during April–December period increased to Rs 1,586.53 crore as against Rs 1,332.37 crore, registering an increase of 19.08 per cent. Net interest margin stood at 3.09 per cent as against 2.88 per cent for the corresponding period of last year. Annualised basic Earnings per Share (EPS) increased to Rs 23.03 as against Rs 17.05 of the previous year.

Announcing the quarterly results, V A Joseph, managing director and CEO of the bank said: "The bank has planned to open 60 branches in the next six month period taking the total number of branches to 635."

He also said that SIB would soon tie up with Hutton National Bank of Sri Lanka and Qatar Commercial Bank for overseas remittances. Recently, the Kerala government has granted permission to SIB to accept commercial taxes.