United Bank of India, after successive loss, posts Rs 95 cr profit for Q4

The gross NPA of the bank as a percentage of total lending in the last quarter stood at 16.48 per cent in the last quarter, against 24.10 per cent in the same period of the previous financial year

United Bank of India, after successive quarters of loss, on Monday posted a net profit of Rs 95.18 crore for Q4 of FY19, against a net loss of Rs 261 crore in the same period of the last financial year. In Q3 of FY19, the bank had posted a net loss of about Rs 1,139 crore.

“We majorly focused on recovery of written off assets. We could recover around Rs 343 crore this financial year through recovery from sale of written off assets, against about Rs 107 crore in the last financial year, which was a major contributor to profitability,” Ashok Kumar Pradhan, MD & CEO of United Bank of India told Business Standard.

Gross non-performing assets (NPA) of the bank as a percentage of total lending in the last quarter stood at 16.48 per cent in the last quarter, against 24.10 per cent in the same period of the previous financial year. The percentage of net NPA stood at 8.67 per cent in the last quarter, against 16.49 per cent in the same period of the previous financial year.

The bank board has decided to raise equity capital of about Rs 1,500 crore in the present financial year by way of public issue, rights issue or qualified institutional placement (QIP).

The bank has provided an additional about Rs 424 crore for the first and second list of companies referred to NCLT (National Company Law Tribunal), under IBC (Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code).

In the last quarter, the bank also raised about Rs 31 crore by way of ESPS (Employee Share Purchase Scheme).

The bank adopted Differentiated Banking approach with RAM (Retail-Agriculture and MSME)  focus, which is expected to account for 60 per cent  of the bank's credit portfolio by 2020, the bank said in a press release. The bank established 36 Retail and MSME hubs across the country.

“ln order to conserve capital, the bank concentrated on fresh exposures of higher rated corporate, and PSU borrowers, ensuring secured exposures to the extent possible. Credit limits were reviewed from time to lime and unutilized limits are cancelled to obviate the need of capital charge on such loans,” the bank said in a press release.

Further, the bank rolled out a liberal OTS (One Time Settlement) scheme, which was non discriminating and non- discretionary, to expedite recovery efforts in NPA and written-off accounts, the bank said.