Syndicate Bank clocks net loss of Rs 2,195.12 cr

Public sector lender Syndicate Bank has reported a net loss of Rs 2,195.12 crore in the last quarter ended March 31, due to high bad loans that required higher provisioning.

The bank had posted a net profit of Rs 103.84 crore in the corresponding January-March quarter of 2016-17. In December quarter, there was a net loss of Rs 869.77 crore.

The bank's provisioning requirement for bad assets were raised by nearly three times during the March quarter to Rs 3,544.68 crore as against Rs 1,192.54 crore in the same period previous fiscal, it said in a regulatory filing.

Income during January-March period came down to Rs 6,046 crore from Rs 6,913.09 crore earned in same period of previous fiscal.

For the full year ended March 2018, the bank reported a net loss of Rs 3,222.84 crore against a net profit of Rs 358.95 crore in 2016-17.

Income for the year fell to Rs 24,581.85 crore from Rs 26,461.18 crore.

The current MD and CEO of Syndicate Bank Melwyn Rego was last month booked by the CBI along with several others in the Rs 600 crore IDBI loan default case.

Rego has earlier worked as Deputy Managing Director of IDBI Bank.

On consolidated basis, the Manipal-headquartered lender suffered a net loss of Rs 3,111.69 crore against net profit of Rs 517.45 crore a year ago.

Full year provisioning for bad loans rose to Rs 7,620.08 crore from Rs 3,545.44 crore.

Asset quality of the bank worsened as gross non-performing assets (NPAs) hit 11.53% of gross advances (Rs 25,758.60 crore) by end of March 2018 from 8.50% (Rs 17,609.31 crore) as on March 31, 2017.

Net NPAs grew to 6.28% (Rs 13,239.46 crore) from 5.21% (Rs 10,410.98 crore).

In respect of certain NPA accounts under Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), the requirement of provisions is reduced from 50% to 40%. The bank, however, has maintained the provision at 50 per cent in respect of secured portion, it said.

Detailing about the NPA divergence for 2016-17, the bank said its balance sheet has witnessed a gap of Rs 2,336.70 crore in terms of gross NPAs (Rs 1,724.20 crore for net NPAs), while for divergence for provisioning it stood at Rs 612.50 crore.

This divergence resulted in adjusted loss of Rs 253.55 crore for the fiscal ended March 2017.

Shares of Syndicate Bank on Wednesday tumbled over 12% after the company reported a net loss of Rs 2,195.12 crore in the quarter ended March 2018.

The stock crashed 12.30% to end at Rs 43.85 on the BSE. Intra-day, it slumped 12.8% to Rs 43.60 -- its 52-week low.

On the NSE, shares of the company dived 12.45% to close at Rs 43.95.

The company's market valuation also fell by Rs 871.26 crore to Rs 6,214.74 crore.

In terms of equity volume, 14.73 lakh shares of the company were traded on the BSE and over one crore shares changed hands on NSE during the day.