Bank of India Q3 net loss widens to Rs 4,738 cr; NPA provisions jump 2-fold

State-owned Bank of India Monday reported widening of its net loss to Rs 4,737.56 crore in the third quarter ended December 2018, hit by nearly two-fold jump in provisioning for bad loans.

Its net loss was Rs 2,341.20 crore in the October-December period of 2017-18.

Total income of the bank, however, rose to Rs 11,839.53 crore during the reported quarter of 2018-19, as against Rs 10,376.03 crore in the same period a year ago.

Bank's provisions for bad loans soared to Rs 9,179.48 crore in the December quarter, up from Rs 4,373.06 crore in the same period previous year.

Although, the bank improved on its asset quality with the net non-performing assets (NPAs) trimming down to 5.87 per cent of the net advances as on December 31, 2018, as against 10.29 per cent by the end of December 2017.

Gross NPAs (or bad loans) were down slightly at 16.31 per cent of the gross advances from 16.93 per cent a year ago.

In absolute terms, the gross NPAs of the bank stood at Rs 60,797.55 crore at end-December 2018 from Rs 64,248.58 crore a year ago period. Net NPAs were valued at Rs 19,437.35 crore as against Rs 36,117.23 crore.

During the quarter ended December 2018, the bank has made additional provision of Rs 5,098.74 crore in view of uncertainty of recovery and deterioration in value of underlying assets in respect of 331 NPA accounts, it said.

"In respect of RBI referred NCLT accounts (list 1 & 2), the bank has made a provision of Rs 572 crore during the quarter ended December 31, 2018, due to uncertainty of recovery. The provision held in respect of NCLT accounts stood at Rs 6,939.02 crore as on December 31, 2018, representing 100 per cent of the outstanding value," it added.

Bank of India said there was a recovery of Rs 2,360.79 crore (including Rs 561 crore received in Bhushan Power and Steel Ltd) with respect to accounts referred to the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) as per the list 1 of the Reserve Bank.

"Resolution of NCLT accounts to lead to lower gross NPAs," it said further.

Stock of the bank slumped 3.97 per cent at the close of business on BSE at Rs