UBI Q2 net profit at Rs 124cr, bad loans fall substantially

State-owned United Bank of India reported a net profit of Rs 123.88 crore in the quarter ended September 30, on the back of substantially lower dud loans, leading to lower provisioning requirement. The Kolkata-headquartered bank had posted a net loss of Rs 883.17 crore in the July-September period of 2018-19.

The lender's total income rose to Rs 3,013.74 crore in the September 2019 quarter, compared with Rs 2,600.47 crore earned in the corresponding period of the previous financial year, the bank said in a regulatory filing on Wednesday. In the quarter under review, the lender reported slippages of around Rs 1,000 crore, out of which Rs 800 crore was from corporate accounts, MD and CEO Ashok Pradhan told reporters in Kolkata.

"The bank has done significantly well during the second quarter. We have registered net profit for three consecutive quarters," he said. The lender is awaiting resolutions to the tune of Rs 6,000 crore in the NCLT, out of which Rs 1,600 crore is from exposure to power and steel sectors alone.

On the proposed amalgamation between Punjab National Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce and UBI, Pradhan said, "The process is progressing smoothly so far. We are giving prime attention to HR issues." The amalgamated entity is expected to be operational from April 2020. UBI brought down its net non-performing assets (NPAs) to 7.88 per cent as on September 30, from 14.36 per cent by the end of September 2018.

Gross NPAs or bad loans reduced to 15.51 per cent of the gross advances by the end of September, compared with 22.69 per cent in the year-ago period. In absolute terms, the net NPAs were Rs 5,380.93 crore against Rs 8,658.10 crore, while the gross NPAs were Rs 11,544.19 crore from Rs 15,163.28 crore.

The bank's provisioning and contingencies requirement for July-September 2019 came down to Rs 436.42 crore from Rs 1,481.24 crore parked aside for the year-ago period. The lender said it made additional provision of Rs 46.75 crore in respect of eligible NCLT accounts by the end of second quarter.

"Actual provision as on September 30, 2019, for NCLT (list 1 and 2) accounts stand at Rs 3,322.77 crore instead of Rs 3,276.01 crore as per IRAC (income recognition and asset classification) norms," it added. Provision coverage ratio as on September 30 stood at 74.89 per cent, said United Bank of India.

Pradhan added that if the NCLT resolutions happen, UBI's NNPA level would reduce to between six and seven per cent by the end of December 2019. Shares of United Bank of India closed 19.95 per cent higher at Rs 8.90 a piece on the BSE..

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