Lakshmi Vilas Bank Q4 net loss narrows to Rs 264cr

Private lender Lakshmi Vilas Bank Tuesday reported a lower net loss of Rs 264.43 crore for the quarter ending March 2019 compared to Rs 622.25 crore in the year-ago period due to a decline in provisioning for bad loans.

Total income of the lender fell to Rs 739.73 crore during the January-March quarter of 2018-19 from Rs 740.91 crore in the same quarter of the preceding fiscal, the bank said in a regulatory filing.

The asset quality of the bank worsened as the gross non-performing assets (NPAs) hit 15.30 per cent of gross loans at the end March 2019, as against 9.98 per cent by March 2018. Net NPAs or bad loans too shot up to 7.49 per cent from 5.66 per cent.

In absolute term, gross NPAs were at Rs 3,358.99 crore by the end of 2018-19, higher than Rs 2,694.21 crore year ago. Net NPAs rose to Rs 1,506.29 crore from Rs 1,457.89 crore.

However, provisions for bad loans and restructured accounts were restricted to Rs 301.24 crore during the last quarter of fiscal ended March 2019 from Rs 880.40 crore provision year ago.

On yearly basis, the bank saw widening of loss to Rs 894.09 crore in FY2018-19, against Rs 584.87 crore in the previous year.

Total income during the fiscal fell to Rs 3,090.21 crore against Rs 3,388.43 crore.

Net interest margin (NIM) of the bank stood at 1.73 per cent for the March quarter against 1.34 per cent in the year-ago period. For the full year, the NIM stood at 1.65 per cent, down from 2.38 per cent year earlier.

Post the board approval for merger between Indiabulls Housing Finance Ltd (IHFL) with Lakshmi Vilas Bank in April this year, the lender said that the scheme is subject to receipt of approval from the Reserve Bank and other regulatory nods.

The provision coverage ratio stood at 62.08 per cent at end of March 2019 (55.07 per cent at end March 2018).

LVB shares closed 1.07 per cent down at Rs 73.75 on BSE.