Syndicate Bank reports net loss of Rs 2,195 cr in Q4

Public sector lender Syndicate Bank today reported a net loss of Rs 2,195.12 crore in the last quarter ended March 31, due to high bad loans that required higher provisioning.

The bank had posted a net profit of Rs 103.84 crore in the corresponding January-March quarter of 2016-17. In December quarter, there was a net loss of Rs 869.77 crore.

The bank's provisioning requirement for bad assets were raised by nearly three times during the March quarter to Rs 3,544.68 crore as against Rs 1,192.54 crore in the same period previous fiscal, it said in a regulatory filing.

Income during January-March period came down to Rs 6,046 crore from Rs 6,913.09 crore earned in same period of previous fiscal.

For the full year ended March 2018, the bank reported a net loss of Rs 3,222.84 crore against a net profit of Rs 358.95 crore in 2016-17.

Income for the year fell to Rs 24,581.85 crore from Rs 26,461.18 crore.

The current MD and CEO of Syndicate Bank Melwyn Rego was last month booked by the CBI along with several others in the Rs 600 crore IDBI loan default case.

Rego has earlier worked as Deputy Managing Director of IDBI Bank.

On consolidated basis, the Manipal-headquartered lender suffered a net loss of Rs 3,111.69 crore against net profit of Rs 517.45 crore a year ago.

Full year provisioning for bad loans rose to Rs 7,620.08 crore from Rs 3,545.44 crore.

Asset quality of the bank worsened as gross non-performing assets (NPAs) hit 11.53 per cent of gross advances (Rs 25,758.60 crore) by end of March 2018 from 8.50 per cent (Rs 17,609.31 crore) as on March 31, 2017.

Net NPAs grew to 6.28 per cent (Rs 13,239.46 crore) from 5.21 per cent (Rs 10,410.98 crore).

In respect of certain NPA accounts under Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), the requirement of provisions is reduced from 50 per cent to 40 per cent. The bank, however, has maintained the provision at 50 per cent in respect of secured portion, it said.

Detailing about the NPA divergence for 2016-17, the bank said its balance sheet has witnessed a gap of Rs 2,336.70 crore in terms of gross NPAs (Rs 1,724.20 crore for net NPAs), while for divergence for provisioning it stood at Rs 612.50 crore.

This divergence resulted in adjusted loss of Rs 253.55 crore for the fiscal ended March 2017.

Shares of Syndicate Bank closed 2.82 per cent down at Rs 50 apiece on BSE today.