United Bank Q4 net down by 79 percent

Public sector lender United Bank of India Tuesday reported a 79 percent dip in its net profit to Rs.31.18 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2013, from Rs 149.29 crore for the same period in the previous year.

Total income of the city-based bank however increased to Rs.2,687.18 crore in fourth quarter last fiscal as compared to Rs.2,370.15 crore in the same period previous fiscal.

The bank suffered sharp fall in profit during the period under review mainly on the back of steep rise in total provisions to Rs.758.80 crore. It had made provisions of Rs.306.65 crore during the last quarter in 2011-12.

For the full financial year, the PSU bank's net profit, which stood at Rs.392 crore during 2012-13, came down from Rs.632 crore in 2011-12 on account of higher provisioning made during the year.

Chairperson and managing director Archana Bhargava said the bank made a provisioning for non-performing assets (NPAs) of Rs.1,010 crore.

The lender's gross NPAs as a proportion of advances rose to 4.25 percent at the end of the last fiscal from 3.41 percent in the previous fiscal, while net NPAs also increased to 2.87 percent during the year from 1.72 percent at the end of March 2012.

United Bank's net interest margin (NIM) during FY13 stood at 2.67 percent against 3.11 percent in FY12.