Central Bank of India Q2 loss widens to Rs 9.24 bn due to rising bad loans

State-owned Central Bank of India Wednesday reported widening of net loss to Rs 9.23 billion in the second quarter ended September 30, due to mounting bad loans and falling core income.

The bank had posted a net loss of Rs 7.50 billion in the year-ago period, it said in a regulatory filing.

However, the loss narrowed from Rs 15.22 billion reported in the June quarter.

Total income also fell to Rs 61.97 billion in the quarter, from Rs 68.96 billion a year ago.

The bank's interest income fell to Rs 56.85 billion in July-September, from Rs 61.66 billion in the year-ago period.

The lender's asset quality worsened year-on-year, as gross non-performing assets (NPAs) spiked to 21.48 per cent of the gross advances as at September-end as compared with 17.27 per cent by the end of the same month in 2017.
 

Net NPAs also ballooned to 10.36 per cent of the net advances, against 9.53 per cent a year ago.

However, NPAs or bad loans (both net and gross) corrected sequentially.

In absolute value, gross NPAs stood at Rs 374.10 billion as on September 30, 2018, against Rs 316.41 billion by September 2017.

Net NPAs were Rs 157.94 billion, compared with Rs 158.99 billion a year ago.

Even as bad loans spiked, the bank cut down on its NPA provisions to Rs 16.49 billion for the second quarter, against Rs 17.91 billion parked aside in the year-ago period.
 

The overall provisions and contingencies, however, moved up to Rs 19.82 billion, while it was at Rs 19.61 billion in year-ago September quarter.

The provisioning coverage ratio (PCR) of the bank is 67.74 per cent (previous corresponding period 58.58 per cent), the lender said.

Stock of Central Bank of India was trading 1.12 per cent down at Rs 30.90 on BSE.