Bank of Baroda reports Rs 1,407 cr loss in Q3

State-run Bank of Baroda (BoB) on Friday reported a net loss of Rs 1,407 crore for the quarter ended December on account of higher provisioning for bad loans. The bank had reported profit after tax of Rs 436 crore in the same period last year.

BoB amalgamated Dena Bank and Vijaya Bank with it from April 1, 2019. "We have had a bit of a rough quarter because of the impact of the divergence, which was there on the provision and on the profit but if you look at the year-on-year figure they seem to stand out well," the bank's newly appointed managing director and CEO Sanjiv Chadha told reporters.

Provisions for bad loans rose 47 percent to Rs 6,621 crore from Rs 4,505 crore last year. Total provisions increased by 54 percent to Rs 6,365 crore as against Rs 4,133 crore.

Net interest margin improved by 18 basis points to 2.80 percent from 2.62 percent in the year-ago quarter. Net interest income (NII) grew 9 percent to Rs 7,128 crore.

The bank's gross NPA ratio declined to 10.43 percent as against 10.91 percent in the last quarter, while net NPA stood at 4.05 percent as against 4.79 percent. Fresh slippages in the quarter stood at Rs 10,387 crore, of which Rs 4,509 crore was on account of divergence found by the Reserve Bank of India for the period ended March 31, 2019.

Divergence in provision for NPAs was at Rs 4,090 crore. During the December quarter, there were three NBFC accounts worth Rs 2,900 crore, one chemical company worth Rs 2,700 crore and two power companies worth Rs 1,000 crore that slipped into NPA.

The bank's telecom sector exposure stood at Rs 4,100 crore. The SMA 2 (special mention account 2) watchlist stood at Rs 10,832 crore.

Capital adequacy ratio stood at 13.48 percent and CET-1 (common equity tier-1) at 9.85 percent as on December 31, 2019. Domestic deposits were up 1.3 percent at Rs 7,82,070 crore, while advances stood at Rs 5,44,726 crore at the end of December.

Shares of BoB on Friday closed 0.84 percent higher at Rs 95.60 on the BSE.