Bank of Maha Q4 loss widens to Rs 455 cr on NPA woes

Public sector Bank of Maharashtra today said its net loss widened to Rs 455.45 crore in the March quarter due to higher provisioning for bad loans.
The bank had logged a net loss of Rs 119.84 crore in the corresponding March quarter a year ago.
The loss during the quarter also expanded sequentially when compared to December quarter's Rs 182.51 crore loss, it said in a regulatory filing.
For the entire fiscal 2016-17, total loss stood at Rs 1,372.51 crore, against a net profit of Rs 100.69 crore in the preceding 2015-16 fiscal.
The Pune-based lender witnessed its gross non-performing assets(NPAs) or bad loans almost doubling to 16.93 per cent of gross advances at the end of March 2017 from 9.34 per cent a year ago.

Net NPAs by March 31 rose to 11.76 per cent of net advances, almost twice of 6.35 per cent of net loans a year ago.

Thus, provisions and contingencies rose to Rs 1,833.37 crore for the quarter from Rs 679.51 crore a year ago.
Of this, provisions to cover bad loans were Rs 1,742.76 crore, against Rs 791.34 crore a year earlier.
For the full fiscal 2016-17, income also came down to Rs 13,570.03 crore from Rs 14,072.27 crore in the preceding year.
The bank has not declared any dividend for the year 2016 -17.
Stock of Bank of Maharashtra closed 0.92 per cent down at Rs 37.52 on BSE.