Bank of Baroda Q1 net doubles to Rs 528 cr on lower provisions

State-run Bank of Baroda's net profit more than doubled to Rs 528 crore in the June quarter on lower provision for bad loans.

The bank had reported a profit after tax of Rs 203 crore in the year-ago quarter.

Its total provision stood at Rs 2,477 crore in the reporting quarter, while the provision for non-performing assets (NPAs) was at Rs 1,760 crore, down 18.4 per cent year-on-year.

"Indications are it is a turnaround quarter for us but we will hold our judgement for one more quarter. On most of the dimensions, things have played out to what we would have in best case like to see play out," the bank's managing director and chief executive officer PS Jayakumar told reporters here today.

The bank's domestic net interest margin (NIM) was at 2.93 per cent during the quarter, while it was at 2.65 per cent for international operations.

Its net interest income rose by 29 per cent to Rs 4,381 crore, from Rs 3,405 crore in the year-ago period.

Gross NPA during the quarter worsened to 12.46 per cent, from 11.40 per cent in the same period last year; while net NPA ratio stood at 5.40 per cent, against 5.17 per cent.

"I think (going ahead) our NPA numbers in absolute numbers should go down," said Jayakumar.

Fresh slippages during the quarter was at Rs 2,868 crore, down from Rs 4,384 crore in the same period last year.

The bank has a watchlist of Rs 8,600 crore and 85 per cent of the slippages in the June quarter were from the watchlist of March 2018.

Recovery in the period stood at Rs 2,579 crore, while the bank upgraded Rs 546 crore worth of loans.

The lender recovered Rs 1,006 crore of the total exposure of Rs 5, 813 crore in the first list of NCLT.

The bank has made a provision of 64.43 per cent in the first list of NCLT.

The lender wrote off Rs 2,214 crore worth of loans in the quarter.

The CRAR was at 12.13 per cent as on June 2018. Out of this, the share of tier 1 capital was 10.5 per cent and that of CET 1 capital was 9.27 per cent.

Its total business grew by 5.04 per cent to Rs 9.96 lakh crore. Of which, total deposits stood at Rs 5.81 lakh crore, up 1.9 per cent year-on-year.

Domestic credit grew by 19.84 per cent. Retail loan growth was up at 33.85 per cent, and within retail loans, home loan grew at 43.47 per cent.

In terms of international business, the lender has identified four markets - the US, the UK, the UAE and Singapore - where it will be focusing more going ahead, bank's executive director Mayank Mehta said.

The scrip of the bank today ended 0.58 per cent down at Rs 138.05 apiece on the BSE, against 0.95 per cent rise in the benchmark.