Andhra Bank Q3 Net up over 4-fold to Rs 202cr on higher income

Public sector lender Andhra Bank today reported an over four-fold jump in its net profit at Rs 202 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2014, driven by improved yields from advances.
The bank had posted a net profit of Rs 46 crore during the same quarter last fiscal.
Chairman and managing director of the bank, CVR Rajendran attributed the sharp rise in the net to higher yield on advances and low cost deposits during the quarter.
Total income of the bank grew by over 16 per cent to Rs 4,540 crore during the Q3 against Rs 3,901 crore in the same period last year, Rajendran said in a press conference.

"We have shed some high cost deposits and at the same time our yield on advances has significantly grown. These issues contributed to higher profits," he said.
Replying to a query, he said the bank is planning to raise Rs 500 crore by way of tier-I bonds before March.

"We have raised Rs 500 crore Tier-I capital amount of Rs 500 crore through perpetual bonds. We may raise another Rs 500 crore before end of the March. If market situation is good then we may raise another Rs 1,000-1,500 crore for Tier I and Tier-II capital next year," the banker said.

He also said the bank expect the Reserve Bank to cut the repo rate by another 25 basis points.
On NPAs, he said the situation is expected to come back to normal during next year as economy appears to be picking up.
Bank's provisions towards bad loans were kept at Rs 541.52 crore during the quarter under review, up from Rs 428 crore in the year-ago period.
Gross Non-Performing Assets (NPAs) or the bad loans were at 5.99 per cent of the advances as of December 31, 2014 from 5.55 per cent in December 31, 2013.
Net NPAs stood at 3.7 per cent in October-December 2014-15, from 3.65 per cent in the same quarter year ago.