Syndicate Bank reports Rs 128-crore net profit in March quarter

Syndicate Bank on Friday reported a profit of Rs 128.02 crore for the March quarter of 2018-19 financial year on a modest rise in core income and slight improvement in bad loan ratio.

The public sector lender posted a loss of Rs 2,195.12 crore during January-March quarter of 2017-18.

During December quarter of the previous fiscal, the bank logged a profit of Rs 107.99 crore.

Total income during the quarter under review was at Rs 6,345.22 crore as compared to Rs 6,046 crore in the same period a year ago, the lender said in a regulatory filing.

Interest income was at Rs 5,610.26 crore during the period, as against Rs 5,357.24 crore a year ago.

For entire 2018-19, the bank reported a net loss of Rs 2,524.20 crore. In the previous fiscal, the loss stood at Rs 3,111.69 crore.

Total income for the fiscal gone by was down at Rs 24,012.75 crore from Rs 24,691.28 crore in 2017-18.

The bank's gross non-performing assets (NPAs) were 11.37 per cent of the gross advances by end of fiscal 2018-19, as against 11.53 per cent at end-March 2018.

Net NPAs too came down marginally at 6.16 per cent from 6.28 per cent.

Provisions for bad loans were pruned to Rs 831.22 crore for the March quarter 2018-19 from Rs 3,544.68 crore parked aside in the year-ago period.

Syndicate Bank said it has restructured 4,340 MSME accounts and treated them as standard assets amounting to Rs 137.87 crore during the quarter, as per RBI directive, and maintained provision at 5.25 per cent amounting to Rs 7.24 crore.

The provision coverage ratio as on March 31, 2019 stood at 66.43 per cent.

Syndicate Bank stock closed 3.55 per cent higher at Rs 37.90 on BSE.