South Indian Bank's asset quality deteriorates; Q4 net profit falls 38 pct

Private sector South Indian Bank Thursday reported a fall of 38 per cent in net profit at Rs 70.51 crore for the March quarter due to a rise in bad loans. The bank had registered a net profit of Rs 114.10 crore in the same period of the 2017-18 fiscal.

Total income during the quarter ended March 2019 increased to Rs 2,026.59 crore from Rs 1,767.65 crore a year ago, the bank said in a regulatory filing. The bank registered a 13 per cent rise in interest income at Rs 1,790.94 crore from Rs 1,588.98 crore. Asset quality of the bank deteriorated, with the gross non-performing assets (NPAs) rising to 4.92 per cent of the gross advances as on March 31, 2019 from 3.59 per cent a year ago. Net NPAs increased to 3.45 per cent from 2.60 per cent.

In absolute value, gross NPAs stood at Rs 3,131.67 crore by the end of fiscal 2018-19 from Rs 1,980.30 crore a year ago. Net NPAs were valued at Rs 2,163.62 crore as against Rs 1,415.80 crore earlier. Consequently, the provisions for bad loans during January-March quarter of 2018-19 were raised to Rs 219.15 crore as against Rs 148.63 crore a year earlier. The board of directors, in their meeting held Thursday, proposed a dividend of Rs 0.25 per equity share for the year ended March 31, 2019, it said.