Canara Bank Q3 net profit up at Rs 322 crore

It has recorded three-fold jump

 Public sector lender Canara Bank on Friday reported nearly three-fold jump in net profit at Rs 321.88 crore for the third quarter ended December 31, 2016. The bank had reported a net profit of Rs 84.97 crore in the corresponding quarter of the last financial year.

“Cash recovery during the quarter at Rs 1,021 crore took the cumulative figure to Rs 2,979 crore for the nine months,” Canara Bank MD and CEO Rakesh Sharma said.

“The bank’s total income for the quarter went up marginally 0.23% to Rs 12,079.37 crore compared with Rs 1,2050.63 crore in the year-ago quarter,” he said.

Other income also rose by 53.3% year-on-year to Rs 1,791.70 crore and operating profit was up 27.6% at Rs 1,981.33 crore in October-December quarter.

Net Interest Income (NII), or the difference between the interest earned on loans and the interest paid on deposits, grew at 8.40% to Rs 2,413.8 crore compared with Rs 2,226.6 crore.

The bank’s gross Non Performing Assets (NPAs) or bad loans as a percentage of total advances rose to 9.97% from 5.84% in the same quarter a year ago.

Net NPAs went up to 6.72% from 2.42% at the end of third quarter. Gross NPAs in absolute terms rose significantly to Rs 34,338.65 crore as compared to Rs 19,813.44 crore.

The capital adequacy ratio as per Basel III norms improved to 12.28%, up from 11.54% a year ago, with CET 1 ratio at 8.11% and tier-I ratio at 9.01%. The bank’s stock closed 5.04% lower at Rs 272.50 per share on the BSE on Friday.