South Indian Bank Q4 net grows to Rs 75.5 cr

Private lender South Indian Bank's net profit rose marginally by 3.5 per cent to Rs 75.54 crore for the quarter to March 2017 as provisions to cover bad loans spiked.
Profit for January-March last year read Rs 72.97 crore.
Income for the March quarter increased to Rs 1,608.42 crore as against Rs 1,506.94 crore in the year-ago period, the bank said in a regulatory filing.
For the full 2016-17, net profit went up 17.8 per cent to Rs 392.50 crore, from Rs 333.27 crore a year earlier.
Total income for the fiscal grew to Rs 6,562.64 crore as against the earlier Rs 6,074.62 crore.

Asset quality turned for the better, with gross non- performing assets (NPAs) dropping to 2.45 per cent of gross advances as of 2017 March-end, from 3.77 per cent a year ago.

Net NPAs as a percentage of net loans were 1.45 per cent, down from 2.89 per cent in the previous year.
However, provisioning and contingencies increased as per RBI's balancesheet clean-up exercise, which hit Rs 165.30 crore for the March quarter, up from Rs 116.25 crore last year.
"The bank has assigned certain NPAs to asset reconstruction companies (ARCs) and spread the shortfall in net book value over a period as per RBI's prudential norms on income recognition, asset classification and provisioning to advances," it added.

The board has recommended a dividend of Re 0.40 per share for 2016-17.
The stock tumbled over 4 per cent to Rs 24.65 on the BSE in post-noon trade.