PNB posts Rs 246 crore profit in Q3 FY19

Less than a year after being hit by a Rs 14,356 crore Nirav Modi scam, the Punjab National Bank (PNB) on Tuesday announced a net profit of Rs 246 crore for three months ending December 2018 as compared to Rs 230 crore in the same period of the previous year.

The deposits increased to Rs 6.5 lakh crore from Rs 6.42 lakh crore in the year-on period, while advances reached Rs 4.34 lakh crore from Rs 4.33 lakh crore.

"We are back in the black after 100 per cent provisions for all our commitments," said PNB Managing Director Sunil Mehta.

In the quarter ending March 2018, the public sector bank was hit by a Rs 14,356 crore fraud at its Brady House Mumbai branch involving certain accounts in the gems and jewellery sector.

"The financial results have been arrived at after considering provisions for non-performing assets, standard assets, restructured advances, standard derivative exposures, unhedged foreign currency exposure and investment depreciation on the basis of extant guidelines issued by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)," it said in a statement to stock exchanges after the board meeting.

But PNB's total income declined to Rs 14,854 crore during October to December 2018 from Rs 15,257 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year. Total expenses went up to Rs 11,754 crore from Rs 11,012 crore.

More damagingly, the gross non-performing assets piled up to Rs 77,733 crore from Rs 57,519 crore in October to December 2018.

However, asset quality improved quarter-on-quarter with gross bad loans as a percentage of total loans lowering to 16.33 per cent at the end of December from 17.16 per cent at the end of September.

The bank wrote back provision of Rs 162.84 crore during the quarter ending December 2018 in respect of 22 borrowal accounts under the provisions of Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) and RBI, it said in the summarised balance sheet.

"The total provision made in these accounts is Rs 10,573.3 crore compared to nil in the previous corresponding quarter.