State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur March quarter net up 34 per cent at Rs 238 crore

State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur (SBBJ) on Wednesday reported a 33.71 per cent increase in net profit at Rs 238 crore in the quarter to March on recoveries and higher fee income, which helped offset a spike in bad loans.

The public sector lender had registered a net profit of Rs 178.24 crore in the corresponding quarter a year ago.

"Annual charges such as service charges and recovery in written-off accounts helped in higher profit in the quarter," managing director B Sriram said in Mumbai.

For the full year, the recovery of the bank, which is an associate of the State Bank Group, stood at Rs 76 crore out of which Rs 60 crore came in the March quarter.

In FY13, recovery stood at Rs 38 crore, while in the fourth quarter of FY13, it was Rs 15 crore.

However, for the full year, the bank reported a flat net profit of Rs 732 crore, which in the year-ago period stood at Rs 730 crore.

Net interest income rose 33.03 per cent to Rs 741 crore from Rs 557 crore.

However, gross non-performing assets deteriorated to 4.18 per cent in the quarter at Rs 2,733 crore as against 3.62 per cent a year-ago while net non-performing assets (NPAs) stood at 2.76 per cent at Rs 1,771 crore as against 2.27 per cent.

Gross slippage for quarter was at Rs 817 crore.

"Going forward, I am very hopeful that because of the measures taken in the last year, we should be able to do much better on NPA front in retail side. But on commercial side, we will continue to see some pressure for some more time," Mr Sriram said.

The bank set aside Rs 267 crore as against Rs 196 crore during the quarter. Provision coverage ratio of the bank was 56.67 per cent as against 58.64 per cent previous year. Net interest margin improved to 3.35 per cent from 3.14 per cent.

"Despite increase in NPAs, NIMs have held on because we have been able to manage well our liability side," Mr Sriram said.

Total deposits grew 2.44 per cent to Rs 73,875 crore from Rs 72,116 crore last year, while advances nearly 12 per cent to Rs 65,333 crore from Rs 58,474 crore.

The bank reduced its dependence on bulk deposits with the proposition of high cost deposits and CDs were brought down to 12.79 per cent from 18.27 per cent a year ago.