Indian Bank Q3 net profit jumps 62%

Chennai: State-owned Indian Bank on Friday reported 62.3 per cent jump in net profit at Rs 247.16 crore for December quarter 2019-20, mainly due to reduction in bad loans. The bank's profit in the year-ago period stood at Rs 152.26 crore.

Total income during the quarter under review was Rs 6,505.62 crore, up from Rs 5,269.10 crore in the same period a year ago, Indian Bank said.

The bank's net non-performing assets as a percentage of assets reduced to 3.5 per cent during October-December 2019-20 from 4.42 per cent in the year-ago period. Similarly, the percentage of gross NPA was lower at 7.2 per cent as against 7.46 per cent.

In absolute terms, net NPAs stood at Rs 6,487.58 crore. This compares with Rs 7,571.07 crore in the third quarter of the last financial year. The bank further said it had made provisioning of Rs 1,529.26 crore towards bad loans and contingencies. During October-December 2018-19, the provisioning stood at Rs 923.67 crore.

The bank has provided Rs 1,004 crore for divergence in provisioning and also re-classified three standard accounts amounting to Rs 184 crore as fresh NPA, Indian Bank said.

Briefing reporters, Indian Bank Managing Director and CEO Padmaja Chunduru said the third quarter results were very much in line with expectations. "If you recall last quarter also we were talking of building the balance sheet strength and its resilience. I think that is very visible this quarter because there is secular growth across all verticals," she said.