Canara Bank Q3 net up 152% at 318 cr

Public sector lender Canara Bank on Monday reported a massive jump of 152% in net profit at Rs 317.52 crore for the third quarter ended December 2018, aided by strong growth in domestic advances and a healthy CASA growth.

The bank had logged a net profit of Rs 125.75 crore in the corresponding quarter of the last fiscal. Its net interest income improved to Rs 3,814 crore, an increase of 3.66% from Rs 3,679 crore in the year-ago period. The bank's domestic net interest margin (NIM) improved to 2.85% and global NIM at 2.65%.

The bank's total income stood at Rs 13,513.35 crore, an increase of 9.49% compared to Rs 12,341.09 crore.

PV Bharathi, executive director of the bank said the amount of gross NPAs stood at Rs 44,621.27 crore compared with Rs 40,311.98 crore. However, the percentage of gross NPAs stood at 10.25% compared with 10.38% in the third quarter of the last fiscal.

Net NPAs of the bank went up at Rs 26,591.07 crore in the third quarter compared with Rs 25,295.26 crore.

"The bank is taking a multi-pronged approach in terms of cash recovery. As far as recovery is concerned, there are proper policies in place. in the third quarter, cash recovery aggregated to Rs 2,814 crore," she said.

The provision coverage ratio has improved by 670 bps to 62.54% from the December 2017 level of 55.81%.

The bank's global business rose to Rs 9.93 lakh crore, up by 13.2%, driven by higher growth of 15.7% Y-o-Y in domestic business. Also, in the third quarter, the bank's CASA deposits were up by 10.66% at Rs 1.74 lakh crore, and CASA share (domestic) stood at 32.23%.

Bharathi said, "By the end of this fiscal, we are aiming to touch CASA deposits of Rs 2 lakh crore."

The bank's capital adequacy ratio stood at 12.21% and its e-transactions ratio rose to 80.19% from 76.22%, a year ago.

Going forward, the bank aims at improving the bottom-line further with balanced thrust on both retail and corporate advances.

The Bank's shares closed at Rs 240.30 on Monday, down 5.23% from the previous close.