Indian Bank net up 16% in first quarter

Indian Bank has reported a 15.6 per cent increase in net profit to Rs 136.57 crore for the first quarter of 2005-06 compared with Rs 118.13 crore for the same period last year.

Total income had increased by 16 per cent to Rs 889 crore in the first quarter of 2005-06 compared with Rs 766 crore for the same period last year.

Operating profit registered a growth of 23.7 per cent to Rs 195.32 crore for the first quarter compared with Rs 157.93 crore for the corresponding period, the previous year. Advances grew 6.02 per cent growth to Rs 1,107 crore, while deposits registered a growth of 4.8 per cent to Rs 1,703 crore for the first quarter of 2005-06.

Net non-performing assets (NPAs) has been reduced to 1.04 per cent in the first quarter of 2005-06 compared to 2.43 per cent for the corresponding period, the previous year.

PTI adds: Indian Bank has joined hands with the Small Industries Development Bank of India (Sidbi) to co-finance projects under the small and medium enterprises, services and the infrastructure sectors.

Chairman and managing director K C Chakrabarty signed the memorandum of understanding (MoU) with N Balasubramanian, CMD, Sidbi at a function here.

This was the fifth bank in the country with which Sidbi had signed a pact to co-finance `rojects, Balasubramanian told reporters.

All the 150 small industries' clusters in 32 places in the country were now covered by Sidbi, he said.

Chakrabarty said the co-financing arrangement would bring together the core competence of both the institutions in financing working capital and project loans.

Indian Bank was targeting Rs 1,000 crore lending to the SME sector this fiscal, under the tie-up with Sidbi, he said.

The bank, which did not have any sector-specific approach till last fiscal, had financed Rs 300 crore worth projects in the SME sector, he said.

"Indian bank with its large network of branches, will associate itself with Sidbi in providing efficient and faster delivery of credit to ssi. This will enable us to enlarge our recpective clientele base and business," he said.

Balasubramanian said the tie-up will be mutually beneficial as it would generate more business and will go a long way in augmenting growth in the SSI and SME sectors.