Vijaya Bank Q1 net profit declines 43% at Rs 144 cr

Public sector lender Vijaya Bank on Monday reported 43.32% decline in net profit at Rs 144.34 crore in the first quarter of this financial year compared with Rs 254.69 crore in the same quarter last year.

The public sector lender's total income rose to Rs 3,935.77 crore, compared with Rs 3,510.11 crore in the corresponding quarter.

"We have increased our provision coverage ratio from 56.01% to 61.18%. Our operating profit in the first quarter was up by 13.24% at Rs 852 crore. It was Rs 752.55 crore in the year ago period," R A Sankara Narayanan, MD and CEO of Vijaya Bank said.

The bank targets net profit of Rs 1,000 crore in the current fiscal, whereas, its net profit in the last fiscal stood at Rs 727 crore.

The bank's NPA ratios improved in the first quarter as its net NPAs stood at 4.10% compared with 5.24% in the year-ago period.

Narayanan said the bank's Gross NPAs will be below 6% and Net NPAs will be below 4% in the September quarter.

Its gross NPAs rose 11.25% to Rs 7,579.11 crore as on June 30, 2018, compared with Rs 6,812.21 crore a year ago. While gross advances were up by 31.06% at Rs 1,22,348 crore, gross deposits were at Rs 1,57,326 crore. The bank's total business grew by 24.12% at Rs 2,79,674 crore.

Narayanan said the bank's net interest income grew by 27.86% at Rs 1,207 crore compared with Rs 943.80 crore in the first quarter of the previous year. Its NIM (net interest margin) improved by 20 bps to 3.12%.

Narayanan said, "Our strength is retail credit and it was up by 25.44% in the first quarter of this fiscal."

During the quarter, the bank has appropriated the amount recovered in accordance with the resolution plans approved vide over of National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT.) On the basis of legal opinion obtained, the bank has appropriated the amount of Rs 109.84 crore recovered in one of the cases where appeal is pending before the NCLAT, the bank said.

Shares of the company closed at Rs 52.15, up 4.61% on Monday.