Pnb Gilts Pbt Zooms 129% At Rs 81.86 Crore

PNB Gilts has achieved a profit before tax (PBT) of Rs 81.86 crore for the financial year 1997-98. As per the unaudited results, PBT has increased by 129 per cent over the previous year.

PNB Gilts, which is a primary dealer in the government securities market, is a fully owned subsidiary of Punjab National Bank. The profit after tax (PAT) has been Rs 55.10 crore, an increase of 156 per cent over the previous years figure. The company has announced a 21 per cent dividend as against 20 per cent in the earlier year.

The earning per share is Rs 11.02 as against Rs 4.30 the previous year. PNB Gilts is one of the six primary dealers operating in the government securities market.

 

The other five are Securities Trading Corporation of India, Discount and Finance House of India, SBI Gilts, Gilts Securities Trading Corporation and I Sec. The operations of the primary dealers have been facilitated by the easy conditions that characterised the money market for a greater proportion of last year.

The easy liquidity conditions also helped the government in nearly finishing its gross borrowing programme. Given that the primary dealers get a commission for underwriting a portion of the borrowing programme of the government, it helped them in boosting their bottomlines. Y P Narang, managing director, PNB Gilts, said they had surpassed all its biding commitments given to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for treasury bills and government securities.

PNB Gilts achieved a success ratio of over 90 per cent in government securities against the central banks stipulation of 33 per cent. In case of treasury bills they have achieved a success ratio of 50 per cent against the apex banks stipulation of 40 per cent.

It has achieved a combined turnover of Rs 18,200 crore in treasury bills and government securities.