Allahabad Bank's Q4 loss widens to Rs 3,834 cr

Allahabad Bank Friday reported widening of net loss to Rs 3,834.07 crore during the fourth quarter of 2018-19 financial year due to mounting bad loans.

The public sector lender's net loss in the year-ago period stood at Rs 3,509.63 crore.

However, total income during the March quarter of 2018-19 grew to Rs 4,602.86 crore from Rs 4,259.37 crore in the year-ago period, the bank said in a regulatory filing.

For entire 2018-19 financial year, the bank's net loss expanded to Rs 8,457.38 crore from Rs 4,574.22 crore in the previous year.

Total income during the last fiscal was down at Rs 18,806.38 crore as against Rs 19,487.51 crore a year ago.

The bank's gross non-performing assets (NPAs) shot up to 17.55 per cent of gross advances by March 2019 from 15.96 per cent by March 2018.

Net NPAs, however, were down at 5.22 per cent from 8.04 per cent.

In value terms, gross NPAs stood at Rs 28,704.78 crore by end of the last fiscal as against Rs 26,562.79 crore by 2017-18. Net bad loans were worth Rs 7,419.31 crore as compared to Rs 12,229.13 crore earlier.

The amount set aside for NPA provision was higher at Rs 5,278.88 crore during the latest quarter as compared to Rs 5,126 crore in the year-ago period.

"During 2018-19, 322 fraud cases were reported involving a total amount of Rs 70.54 crore. Of these accounts, the bank has recovered a total amount of Rs 13.68 crore and has written back provision of Rs 8.53 crore during the quarter," the lender said.

On divergence in asset classification and provision for NPAs in compliance with the Risk Assessment Report (RAR) of RBI, Allahabad Bank said there was divergence of Rs 1,128.70 crore in gross NPAs and Rs 709.20 crore with regard to net NPAs.

The divergence in provisioning was Rs 1,022.40 crore.

Non performing loan provision coverage ratio of the bank is 79.85 per cent.

Stock of Allahabad Bank closed 0.90 per cent up at Rs 45 on BSE.