United Bank of India Q1 net profit dips 20.75 percent

United Bank of India (UBI) on Monday posted a decline of 20.75 percent in its net profit for the period for the first quarter of 2015-16 at Rs. 52.22 crore against Rs. 65.89 crore in the same period last year.

The bank's total income for the period under review also fell by 3.58 percent at Rs.2,896.74 crore compared to the income of Rs.3,004.25 crore during the same quarter last year.

"The first (fiscal) quarter is always difficult. However, our operating profit remained flat at Rs.578.25 crore during the first quarter as against Rs.574.19 crore in the same period last year," bank's managing director and CEO P. Srinivas told media persons here while discussing the bank's results.

He said the fall in the net profit resulted from lowering of interest rates and higher provisioning.

As the state-owned bank's interest income fell by 2.62 per cent to Rs.2,534.12 crore, interest expenses also registered a fall by five percent to Rs.1,905.81 crore which translated to a 5.34 percent rise in net interest income. However, its other non-interest income fell by 9.76 percent to Rs 362.62 crore in the April-June 2015 quarter which resulted in the decline in its total earnings.

Srinivas said during the first quarter this year, its Interest Expended category registered a decline by nearly five percent at Rs.1,905.81 crore due to the bank's strict monitoring of funding costs.

In the review period, total operating expenses stood at Rs.412.68 crore - down by 2.69 percent compared to the corresponding timeperiod.

Total business of UBI increased by Rs.2,231 crore and stood at Rs.176,946 crore - up by 1.28 percent against the same quarter last quarter.

"While total deposits grew by Rs.1,572 crore to reach at Rs.108,647 crore, the total advances increased by Rs.659 crore to reach at Rs.68,299 crore," he said.

Talking about the bank's asset quality, he said the gross non-performing assets have declined by 7.95 percent from Rs.7,097 crore as on June 2014 to Rs.6,533 crore in June 2015.

"The Net NPA of the bank has come down by 12.34 percent from Rs.4,667 crore to Rs.4,091 crore during the same period," he said.