State Bank Of Mysore Net Soars 156% To Rs 65.89 Crore

State Bank of Mysore has posted a 156 per cent increase in net profit to Rs 65.89 crore during 2001-02.

"Improved efficiency has led to increased profitability for the bank," M Sitarama Murty, managing director, told newspersons.

He said return on assets grew to 0.64 per cent during 2001-02 from 0.27 per cent during 2000-01, while return on equity grew to 18.74 per cent from 8.82 per cent. Higher net profit led to an improvement in the net owned funds, which grew to Rs 351.57 crore from Rs 291. 72 crore.

Announcing that the board had declared a dividend of 25 per cent for 2001-02, Murty said there was a slight decrease in gross non-performing assets (NPAs) to 2.07 per cent from 12.83 per cent while net NPA decreased to 7.36 per cent from 7.65 per cent.

"During 2001-02, we cleaned up the system, making each of our officers accountable for the NPA. We expect far better performance on the NPA front during the current year," Murty said. He said the bank expects to reduce the net NPA level to below 5 per cent during the current year.

Murty said the bank plans to achieve a net profit of over Rs 100 crore, deposits to grow to Rs 1,650 crore and credit to Rs 1,000 crore.

Murty said total income rose 11 per cent to Rs 1,204.39 crore during 2001-02, while core deposits grew 17 per cent to Rs 1,089 crore. Aggregate deposits rose 12 per cent to Rs 872.55 crore and the cost of deposits declined to 7.71 per cent in 2001-02 from 8 per cent in the previous year.

Murthy said the margins continued to fall with decline in interest rates and yield on advances stood at 10.8 per cent. The credit deposit ratio increased to 63.04 per cent from 61.76 per cent in March 2001. The investments in securities, debt and equity increased by Rs 614.40 crore taking the total investments to Rs 4170.34 crore. The yield on investments stood at 11.37 per cent as of March 31, 2002.

The average business per employee rose by Rs 13 lakh to Rs 125 lakh as of March 2002, while net profit per employee rose Rs 0.41 lakh to Rs 0.67 lakh as of March 2002.