SBT Q4 net drops 68 pc to Rs 62 cr, higher provisioning hurts

State Bank of Travancore (SBT) has reported a 67.6 per cent decline in its net profit to Rs 62 crore in the fourth quarter ended March due to a sharp increase in provisioning for bad loans.
The bank had reported a net profit of Rs 192.9 crore in the same quarter a year ago.
Its total income in the quarter under review grew 3.64 per cent to Rs 2,801.7 crore as against Rs 2,703.18 crore in January-March of 2014-15.
SBT's total provisioning in the quarter against bad loans grew by over five-fold to Rs 520.32 crore compared with Rs 92.21 crore in the corresponding quarter of 2014-15.

The bank's gross non-performing assets (NPAs) stood at 4.78 per cent of total advances as against 3.37 per cent a year ago.
Net NPAs came in at 2.77 per cent of total advances as against 2.04 per cent in the year-ago period.

For the whole of 2015-16, SBT's net profit stood at Rs 337.73 crore, as against Rs 335.52 crore a year ago.
In a separate filing, State Bank of Travancore said its board of directors has declared a dividend of Rs 5 per share for 2015-16.
The stock of State Bank of Travancore was trading 2.51 per cent down at Rs 389.85 on BSE.