Union Bank reports narrowing net loss of Rs 2,503 cr in March quarter

State-owned Union Bank of India on Tuesday reported narrowing of its standalone net loss to Rs 2,503.18 crore in the fourth quarter ended March 2020.

The bank had posted a net loss of Rs 3,369.23 crore during the same quarter of the previous financial year. Sequentially, there was a net profit of Rs 574.58 crore in the third quarter of 2019-20.

Standalone income during the March 2020 quarter rose to Rs 11,306.99 crore from Rs 9,621.01 crore a year ago, the bank said in a regulatory filing.

Its provisioning for bad loans and contingencies in April-March 2020 fell to Rs 3,501.69 crore, compared with Rs 5,766.15 crore in the year-ago period.

For the full financial year 2019-20, Union Bank posted a standalone net loss of Rs 2,897.78 crore, down as compared with a loss of Rs 2,947.45 crore a year ago.

Income during the year, however, rose to Rs 42,491.91 crore from Rs 38,540.61 crore in the previous financial year.

On the asset front, the bank witnessed improvement with the gross non-performing assets (NPAs) coming down to 14.15 per cent of the gross advances as on March 31, 2020, from 14.98 per cent by the end of March 2019.

In absolute value, gross NPAs or bad loans stood at Rs 49,085.30 crore by the end of 2019-20, against Rs 48,729.15 crore a year ago.

Net NPAs fell to 5.49 per cent (Rs 17,303.14 crore) from 6.85 per cent (Rs 20,332.42 crore).

The amalgamation of Andhra Bank and Corporation Bank with Union Bank of lndia was effective April 1, 2020.

"Accordingly, the bank, as a prudential measure, has made harmonisation provisioning in its books of accounts for the position as on March 31, 2020, with regard to impact of divergence in asset classification across Union Bank of India, Andhra Bank and Corporation Bank as per extant norms," it said.

The lender added that it has made an additional harmonisation provision for the quarter and year ended March 31, 2020, amounting to Rs 2,509.98 crore and the same is disclosed as exceptional items in the financial results.

With the amalgamation of Andhra Bank and Corporation Bank, Union Bank has become the fifth-largest public sector bank in the country and has an enhanced business mix having a total business of Rs 15 lakh crore and 120 million customer base.

Its gross advances stood at around Rs 6.50 lakh crore as on March 31, 2020.

Union Bank's shares on Tuesday closed 9.77 per cent higher at Rs 35.95 apiece on the BSE.