IOB's profit jumps 58% to Rs 552 crore on lower bad loan provisioning, better recoveries

Public sector lender Indian Overseas Bank on Wednesday reported a 58 per cent jump in its net profit at Rs 552 crore in the quarter ended March 2022, aided by lower provisioning for bad loans and better recoveries.

The bank had reported its profit after tax of Rs 350 crore in the corresponding quarter of FY21.

For the full financial year 2021-22, the bank's net profit doubled to Rs 1,709 crore from Rs 831 crore in the preceding fiscal.

"We had to make lower provisions with respect to our bad and doubtful assets. We have kept our provisions very strong so whatever recoveries we had made got added back to our profit," the bank's managing director and CEO Partha Pratim Sengupta told reporters.

He said the bank had targeted cash recoveries of Rs 4,000 crore from NPA (Non-Performing Asset) accounts and technically written-off accounts in FY22, and achieved cash recoveries of Rs 4,200 crore.

lnterest income stood at Rs 4,215 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2022 as against Rs 4,057 crore last year.

Net interest margins improved to 2.41 per cent from 2.22 per cent in the year-ago quarter.

Gross NPA stood at Rs 15,299 crore with ratio of 9.82 per cent as against Rs I6,323 crore with ratio of 11 .69 per cent as of March 31, 2021.

Net NPAs stood at 2.65 per cent as against 3.58 per cent in the year-ago quarter.

Slippages during the quarter were Rs 981 crore, compared to Rs 2,841 crore a year ago.

The bank's provision coverage ratio improved to 91.66 per cent as on March 31, 2022 from 90.34 per cent in the previous year.

Gross advances stood at Rs 1,55,801 crore in the quarter under review as against Rs 1,39,597 crore in the year-ago period.

The bank has adopted a policy of not taking fresh exposures in the stressed sectors, below hurdle rated accounts with BB and below ratings.

It has also exited from accounts in the stressed sectors, wherever feasible.

Sengupta said the bank is doing a thorough risk analysis and risk mitigation in the corporate loan account where it is taking exposure.

The lender is expecting a loan growth of 12 per cent in the current financial year.

Its capital adequacy ratio stood at 13.83 per cent. The lender will be looking at raising Rs 1,000 crore in equity in the current financial year, Sengupta said.

The bank's scrip ended at Rs 17.50 apiece, up 2.94 per cent on BSE.