Andhra Bank’s net loss widens

Hyderabad: State-owned Andhra Bank on Monday said its net loss widened to Rs 578.59 crore in the third quarter ended December 31, as bad loans surged.

The bank had posted a net loss of Rs 532.02 crore in the October-December quarter previous fiscal. Total income, however, rose to Rs 5,322.33 crore for the third quarter of 2018-19 as against Rs 5,093.43 crore in same period last year, Andhra Bank said in a regulatory filing.

Provisions for bad loans during the quarter were raised to Rs 1,790.17 crore, from Rs 1,744.99 crore parked for the same period last fiscal. The bank witnessed its asset quality deteriorating as gross non-performing assets (NPAs) or bad loans ballooned to 16.68 per cent of gross advances by December-end 2018, compared to 14.26 per cent.

In absolute value, the gross bad loans were Rs 28,703.47 crore as against Rs 21,599.32 crore. Net NPAs, however, were trimmed to 6.99 per cent (Rs 10,778.36 crore) by end of the third quarter as against 7.72 per cent (Rs 10,858.32 crore) a year ago. The provision coverage ratio as on December 31, 2018 stood at 68.47 per cent, Andhra Bank said.