Bank of India logs net profit of Rs 138 cr in Q3

Bank of India on Friday reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 138.20 crore for December quarter 2019-20.

The state-owned lender had posted a net loss of Rs 4,643.71 crore for the year-ago period.

Total income during the quarter under review rose to Rs 13,430.53 crore from Rs 11,791.16 crore in the same period a year ago, the bank said in a regulatory filing.

Provisioning for bad loans and contingencies was reduced to Rs 4,028.03 crore during the quarter as against Rs 9,123.65 crore earlier, it said.

Of this, provisioning for bad loans stood at Rs 3,779.37 crore, down from Rs 9,201.55 crore in the year-ago period.

Gross non-performing assets (NPAs) were at 16.30 per cent of the gross advances at December-end 2019 from 16.31 per cent by the same period a year ago.

Net NPAs or bad loans were 5.97 per cent, as against 5.87 per cent.

"During the quarter ended December 31, 2019, the bank has made additional provision of Rs 501.45 crore in view of uncertainty of recovery and deterioration in value of underlying assets in respect of 49 NPA accounts.

"The provision in such accounts as on December 31, 2019 is Rs 1,083.79 crore," Bank of India said.

On standalone basis, there was a net profit of Rs 105.52 crore during the quarter under review. It had posted a net loss of Rs 4,737.56 crore in October-December, 2018-19.

Income was up at Rs 13,338.09 crore as against Rs 11,701.84 crore earlier.

On the NPA divergence, the bank showed a gap of Rs 1,117 crore for 2018-19.

The bank had reported net NPAs at Rs 19,118.95 crore as on March 31, 2019. While the RBI had assessed it at Rs 20,235.95 crore.

This divergence led to an adjusted loss of Rs 6,992.90 crore for 2018-19, while the bank had reported an overall loss of Rs 5,546.90 crore for the previous fiscal.

The provision coverage ratio of the bank as on December 31, 2019 is 77.15 per cent. It was 76.76 per cent by December-end 2018.

Shares of the bank traded 1.36 per cent higher at Rs 66.95 apiece on the BSE.