State Bank of Mysore (SBM), on Thursday, reported a net profit of  Rs 83.93 crore for the Quarter ended on 31 March, 2008  as against Rs 83.98 crore in the corresponding period last year.

Even though the Total Income for the quarter has jumped 26.12 per cent to Rs 822.94 crore from Rs 652.16 crore, the Bank could not accelerate its profits at the same pace mainly due to the increase in interest cost, operating expenses and provisions  for Non Performing Assets. Interest expended for the quarter ended 31 March,2008 stands at 483.84 crores as against 338.23 crores for the same period last year, showing an increase of 43 per cent or Rs 145 crore. Likewise, the provisions for non performing assets also increased to Rs 23.92 crores in the same quarter against Rs 6.42 crores in the same period a year ago.

Annual profit up

Meanwhile, the net profit of the Bank for the Financial year 2007-08 registered a growth of 28 per cent to reach a level of  Rs 318.86 crore as compared to Rs 249.22 crore in the last year. This was  due to higher operating margins and and lower provision towards bad debts.

Announcing the results here, SBM Managing Director P P Pattanayak said that the Bank proposes to reach a business level of over Rs 60,000 crores during the year 2008-09. “SBM has obtained RBI's approval to open 30 new branches,  23 in Karnataka and two in New Delhi,”  Mr Pattanayak added.