Union Bank net loss widens to Rs 3,370cr in Q4 on higher provisioning

State-owned Union Bank of India Tuesday said its net loss widened to Rs 3,370 crore in the fourth quarter of 2018-19, mainly on account of higher provisioning.

The company had registered a net loss of Rs 2,583.38 crore in the same quarter of the preceding fiscal.

However, the bank had posted a net profit of Rs 153.21 crore in the third quarter of 2018-19.

Total income in three months to March grew to Rs 9,621.01 crore, as against Rs 9,596.86 crore in the same period of 2017-18.

For entire 2018-19, the bank reported a net loss of Rs 2,922.35 crore on a consolidated basis, as against Rs 5,212.47 crore loss in 2017-18. Income during the year stood at Rs 39,355.38 crore, up from Rs 38,413.65 crore a year earlier.

The asset quality of the bank remained poor with the gross non-performing assets (NPAs) standing at 14.98 per cent of gross advances at March-end 2019 against 15.73 per cent as of March 31, 2018.

Net NPAs came down to 6.85 per cent from 8.42 per cent.

The high level of bad asset ratio compelled the bank to make higher provisioning of Rs 5,783.09 crore for March quarter, compared to Rs 5,638.57 crore in the year-ago period.

The bank's provision coverage ratio as on March 31, 2019 stood at 66.24 per cent, as against 57.16 per cent a year ago.

As part of the risk based supervision as per RBI directive, the bank has reported divergence in gross NPAs of Rs 867 crore in 2017-18; divergence in net NPA of (-) Rs 1,414 crore and divergence in provisioning stood at Rs 2,281 crore.

The adjusted net loss during 2017-18 came at Rs 6,770 crore.

Union Bank said its cash recovery and upgradation during 2018-19 increased by 188.5 per cent to Rs 6,447 crore as against Rs 2,235 crore in 2017-18.

Stock of Union Bank closed 4.21 per cent up at Rs 79.25 on the BSE.