Canara Bank reports flat net profit at Rs 627 cr during Q2

State-owned Canara Bank's net profit grew marginally at Rs 627 crore during the quarter ended on September 30, 2014, due to higher provisioning.
The city-headquartered bank had posted a net profit of Rs 626 crore during the corresponding period last year.
Total income grew 14.3 per cent to Rs 11,915 crore in the period under review, compared to Rs 10,427 crore in the year-ago period, the bank said.
"Due to some slippages we had to do some extra provisions. This led to net profit remaining flat during the quarter," Canara Bank Executive Director V S Krishnakumar told reporters here.
He said fresh slippages were Rs 3,178 crore in the July-September quarter.

The operating profit in the quarter was Rs 1,626 crore, up by 14.1 per cent y-o-y and total provision for the quarter was at Rs 999 crore compared to Rs 799 crore for Q2 FY14.

The provision for NPAs in the quarter was Rs 912 crore.
The bank said net interest income for the quarter increased by 8.1 per cent to Rs 2,368 crore. NIM (Domestic) improved to 2.36 per cent from 2.33 per cent last year.
NIM (Global) improved to 2.24 per cent from 2.22 per cent last year, it added.
The bank said gross NPA stood at Rs 9,164 crore, with gross NPA ratio of 2.92 per cent, compared to 2.64 per cent last year, despite continuing stressed scenario at the industry level.

Net NPA stood at Rs 7,170 crore, with a net NPA ratio of 2.31 per cent compared to 2.30 per cent last year.
On the goals for FY15, the bank said it aims to reach an aggregate business figure of over Rs 8 lakh crore. It also plans to take the number of branches to 6,000 plus and number of ATMs to 10,000 plus by March 2015.
Thrust is on improving operational financial ratios such as, NIM, RoA, RoE and cost to income, the bank said, adding that it plans to have gross NPA around two per cent and net NPA around 1.5 per cent.

The bank is opening three more branches in the UK and one each in Frankfurt (Germany), DFC Dubai (UAE), Jeddah (Saudi Arabia), wholly owned subsidiaries in Brazil and Tanzania and representative offices in Tokyo (Japan), Abuja (Nigeria), Jakarta (Indonesia) and Istanbul (Turkey).