UCO Bank Q4 net profit zooms 86% at Rs 581.24 cr on improvement in margins

Board nod for Rs 2,000 cr equity offering

Public sector lender UCO Bank’s net profit grew 86.18 per cent year-on-year (YoY) to Rs 581.24 crore for the quarter ended March 2023 (Q4FY23) on improvement in net interest income.

However, sequentially, the profit declined from Rs 652.97 crore in Q3FY23. 

For FY23, the bank's net profit grew 100.3 per cent to Rs 1,862.34 crore against Rs 929.7 crore in FY22.

The bank has not declared a dividend for FY23.

Its directors have cleared a proposal to raise equity capital up to Rs 2,000 crore in one or more tranches in FY24 through routes like follow-on-public issues, rights issue, and qualified institutional placement. The proposal of raising of equity capital will be placed in the annual general meeting for shareholders’ approval, the Kolkata-based lender informed BSE. 

Its capital adequacy ratio stood at 16.51 per cent with Common Equity Tier of 13.41 per cent at the end of March.

The bank’s stock closed 2.06 per cent higher at Rs 30.72 per share.

UCO Bank’s net interest income (NII), interest revenues minus interest expenses, grew by 19.4 per cent YoY to Rs 1,972 crore in Q4FY23 as against Rs 1,652 crore for Q4FY22.

The bank, in a statement, said advances expanded by 24.54 per cent YoY basis to Rs 1.61 trillion in FY23. Total deposits increased by 11.28 per cent YoY to Rs 2.49 trillion. The share of low-cost deposits — current account and saving accounts (CASA) — stood at 36.5 per cent at the end of March 2023, down from 39 per cent a year ago.

The asset quality profile improved with gross non-performing assets (NPA) declining to 4.78 per cent in March from 7.89 per cent in the same month in 2022. The net NPAs also declined 1.29 per cent in March 2023 from 2.7 per cent a year ago.