Canara Bank Q1 Net marginally up at Rs 806.86 cr

Public sector Canara Bank today reported a marginal 1.86 per cent increase in net profit at Rs 806.86 crore in the first quarter ended June 30 on higher provisioning.
The bank had reported a net profit of Rs 792.07 crore during the corresponding period last year.
The total income of the city-headquartered bank rose to Rs 11,728.01 crore during the quarter under review, against Rs 10,507.88 crore in the same period last year.
"In the last eight quarters we never crossed Rs 800 crore, last two years our profit was below Rs 800 crore.... Never crossed Rs 800 crore," Canara Bank Chairman & Managing Director R K Dubey told reporters here.

On the reason for just about two per cent year-on-year increase in net profit, he said, "It could have gone down also, but we have made enough provisions, our provisions has crossed Rs 1,000 crore, last year provision was much less...".
The provision coverage ratio increased to 60.10 per cent from 58.18 per cent last year, Dubey added.

Bank's Gross NPA (Non Performing Assets) ratio is down to 2.67 per cent from 2.91 per cent as at June 2013, while its Net NPA ratio is down to 2.03 per cent from 2.48 per cent as at June 2013.
Canara bank's core fee income (excluding treasury profit) was up by 18 per cent to Rs 936 crore from Rs 795 crore last year.

Stating that total deposits were up by 12.3 per cent year on year to Rs 4.29 lakh crore, Dubey said "CASA ratio (domestic) is at 24.15 per cent, same level as last year." Net advances of the bank were up by 21.2 per cent year-on-year to Rs 3.03 lakh crore, he added.
Officials said 255 branches and 197 ATMs were added during the quarter, taking a total to 5,010 branches and 6,509 ATMs.
Sharing the goals for FY 15, officials said the bank aims to reach an aggregate business figure of over Rs eight lakh crore and it plans to take the number of branches to 6,000 plus and number of ATMs to 10,000 by March 2015.

They said bank has received RBI approval for opening three more branches in the UK.
Further, the bank plans to open branches in DFC- Dubai, Frankfurt in Germany and subsidiaries in Brazil, Tanzania and representative office in Japan during the year, they added.
Stating that thrust is on improving operational financial ratios, officials said the bank plans to have gross NPA around two per cent and net NPA around 1.5 per cent.
Responding to a question on Rs 3,000 crore QIP (qualified institutional placement) plans, A K Gupta, bank's Executive Director, said: "...Today we are having our AGM (Annual General Meeting), we will speak in our AGM and after finalsing there on the topic we will probably come out soon in a month's time".