Union Bank reports Rs 139 cr net profit in Q2

State-owned Union Bank of India (UBI)Monday reported a net profit of Rs 139.03 crore for the quarter ended September 2018 on lower provisioning for bad loans.

The bank had reported a net loss of Rs 1,530.72 crore in the corresponding July-September period of 2017-18.

The bank had posted a net profit of Rs 129.54 crore in the first quarter of the current fiscal.

Total income of the bank remained almost flat at Rs 9,438.26 crore in the quarter reported, as against Rs 9,439.73 crore in the same period of the preceding fiscal, the bank said in a regulatory filing.

Provisions for bad loans fell to Rs 1,710.01 crore for July-September period of this fiscal from Rs 3,464.71 crore in the corresponding quarter of 2017-18.

However, the bank's asset quality worsened with gross non-performing assets (NPAs) hitting 15.74 per cent of gross advances by the end of September 2018, against 12.35 per cent by September-end 2017.

Net NPAs also rose to 8.42 per cent by the end of second quarter of 2018-19 against 6.70 per cent in September 2017-18 but were down compared to 8.70 per cent in the April-June quarter of the current fiscal.

In absolute-terms, gross non-performing assets (NPAs) of the bank stood at Rs 50,157.42 crore as on September 2018 against Rs 38,285.84 crore in the year-ago period.

Net NPAs were Rs 24,656.94 crore as against Rs 19,479.39 crore.

Union Bank said it provided Rs 60 crore towards wage revision during the quarter out of the cumulative provision of Rs 220 crore with effect from November 2017 as per the bipartite agreement.

There were net deferred tax assets of Rs 293.38 crore to the bank during the second quarter, it said further.

During the quarter, the bank had paid Rs 1 crore as penalty imposed by the Reserve Bank on account of delay in reporting of fraud in one account, it said.

Provision coverage ratio of the bank as on September 2018 stood at 57.66 per cent.

The stock of the bank closed at 172.00, up by 2.11 per cent from the previous close on BSE.