Union Bank Q3 net profit jumps 32% to Rs 104 cr

Public-sector Union Bank of India today reported a 32.4 per cent jump in net profit at Rs 104 crore for third quarter ended December 31, 2016, on healthy earnings from interest.
The bank's net profit had stood at Rs 78.54 crore in the year-ago period.
"Its total income increased to Rs 9,589.45 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2016 from Rs 8,802.06 crore for the same quarter of previous fiscal," Union Bank said in a BSE filing.
The bank's net interest income in October-December 2016 was at Rs 2,136 crore as compared to Rs 1,997 crore a year ago.

Also, non-interest income of the bank increased by 50 per cent to Rs 1,340 crore during the reported quarter from a year earlier.
On asset quality, the bank said slippages during the quarter came down sequentially, even though on year-on-year basis the gross non-performing assets (NPAs) stood at 11.70 per cent of gross advances against 7.05 per cent year ago.

Net NPAs were 6.95 per cent as, against 4.07 per cent.
In absolute terms, Gross NPAs rose to Rs 32,402.74 crore as on December 31 as against Rs 18,495.16 crore. Net NPAs were Rs 18,245.80 crore, up from Rs 10,322 crore a year ago.

Union Bank said excluding one large account, slippages for the quarter was at Rs 1,915 crore.
Of other key metrics, net interest margin (NIM) -- the key gauge of profitability -- however fell a tad in December quarter of 2016-17 at 2.04 per cent as against 2.31 per cent in the year-ago quarter.
Globally also, the NIM fell to 2.01 per cent compared to 2.22 per cent a year-ago.
Union Bank further said transactions through its mobile banking facility during the quarter almost doubled from a year ago. The user base also increased by 65 per cent during the period.

On business front, the bank said the growth in deposits was driven by savings deposits, growing by 46.8 per cent as against 16 per cent a year earlier.
However, the share of high cost deposits declined to 0.9 per cent from 1.3 per cent in the year-ago period.
Earnings per share stood at Rs 6.06 in October-December 2016 as against Rs 4.57 a year ago.
Stock of Union Bank today closed 1.13 per cent down at Rs 166.75 apiece on BSE.