Central Bank bottom line up 50% to Rs 201 crore

Central Bank of India has posted a 49.9 per cent rise in net profit for the third quarter ended December 2007 at Rs 201.01 crore thanks to profit from sale of securities, recoveries of non-performing accounts and commissions.

Comparatively, the net profit in Q3 of December 2006 stood at Rs 134.10 crore.

Total income during the December 2007 quarter rose to Rs 2,205.4 crore from Rs 1,687.2 crore in the year-ago period. Interest income rose from Rs 1,580 crore to Rs 2,022 crore.

The net interest income dipped from Rs 594.85 crore to Rs 544.85 crore during the period. The net interest margins too declined from 3.18 per cent (December 2006) to 2.46 per cent (December 2007).

The non-interest income including sale of securities, commissions, brokerage and income from written-off accounts rose to Rs 183 crore in the December 2007 quarter compared with Rs 107 crore on a y-o-y basis. This helped to boost the bank's profit, Chairman and Managing Director H A Daruwala said.

The deposits grew by 29.46 per cent to Rs 97,063 crore from Rs 74,974 crore a year ago. The cost of deposits rose from 5.06 per cent to 6.30 per cent. This impacted the interest margins.

Advances rose to Rs 58,909 crore from Rs 46,327 crore. The yield on advances moved up to 9.64 per cent from 8.52 per cent. The capital adequacy increased to 11.63 per cent from 11.50 per cent. The bank plans raise about Rs 450 crore through tier-II bonds in February.

It expects further shoring up of capital through revaluation of assets.