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The South Indian Bank (SIB) on Tuesday said its net profit for October-December quarter fell 37.8 per cent from a year earlier to Rs 87.9 crore, due to higher provisions and lower net interest income.
The private sector lender made provisions of Rs 86 crore during the quarter compared to Rs 2 crore in the corresponding period of the past year. Gross non-performing asset ratio increased by 14 basis points from a year earlier and 25 basis points sequentially to 1.8 per cent at the end of December 2014. Net non-performing asset ratio was at 1.04 per cent.
Net interest income, or the difference between interest income and interest expense, declined by 8.7 per cent, as loan growth remained weak. Advances were up 9.7 per cent at Rs 36,998 crore.
The bank’s other income, however, more than doubled from a year ago to Rs 160 crore in the October-December quarter. Total income grew by 9.9 per cent to Rs 1,467 crore.
The lender closed the quarter with a capital adequacy ratio of 11.38 per cent as per Basel-III norms. The bank had 810 branches and 1,108 ATMs across the country at the end of last quarter.
“SIB has reported poor set of numbers with asset quality continuing to deteriorate. On the operating front, net interest income for the bank de-grew, while healthy other income aided operating income to grow by 10.4 per cent,” Vaibhav Agrawal, vice-president research – banking at Angel Broking, said.
