Exim Bank net down a tad at Rs 710-cr; pays Rs 339-cr to govt

The Exim Bank today reported a marginal decline in net profit at Rs 710 crore as the expenditure jumped 28 per cent during the last fiscal.
The bank said its net income declined nearly 4 per cent from Rs 742 crore in FY13 as its provisions increased due to bad assets which stood at 2.1 per cent during the past fiscal.
Net NPAs stood at 0.43 per cent down from 0.47 per cent while the gross NPAs stood at 2.1 per cent, down from 2.37 per cent. The bank maintained a provision coverage ratio of 80 per cent.
The bank restructured Rs 1,400 crore of its bad assets in the year and had Rs 400 crore in the pipeline for recast.

The bank's advances grew 16 per cent to 75,873 crore in the reporting year, while total business grew 14 per cent to Rs 1,56,782 crore, chairman and managing director Yaduvendra Mathur said here.
The non-fund portfolio grew 22 per cent to Rs 9,426 crore, while net worth rose 15 per cent to Rs 8,310 crore. The bank paid Rs 339 crore to the government as share of its profit for the year, up 29 per cent from the previous fiscal.

During the fiscal, the bank extended lines of credit worth USD 1.8 billion, signing in 24 new LoCs. As end of March, the bank had 189 LoCs, covering 75 countries in Africa, Asia, CIS, Europe and Latin America, with credit commitments aggregating, executive director David Rasquinha said.

He said USD 10.33 billion funds are currently available for utilisation, while a number of prospective LoCs are at various stages of negotiations.
Project export contracts supported by the bank stood at Rs 34,131 crore, which were secured by 40 companies in 35 countries. As of end March, 319 project export contracts valued at Rs 1,40,326 crore (USD23.42 billion) supported by the bank, are under execution, in 74 countries across Asia, Africa and CIS by 99 domestic companies.
The bank has so far sanctioned USD 444 million for five projects valued USD 520 million under buyer's credit- national export insurance account. It has also given in-principle commitments for supporting several projects and the current active pipeline includes 54 projects aggregating USD 7.43 billion under this scheme.

The bank extended Rs 6,456 crore in overseas investment assistance to 42 corporates. So far, Exim Bank has provided finance to 494 ventures set up by 391 companies in 80 countries.