State Bank of India (SBI) on Saturday topped analyst estimates when it recorded an 8 per cent growth in net profits for the quarter ended September 30 because of lower provisions. The country’s largest lender posted a net profit of Rs 14,330.02 crore against Rs 13,264.52 crore in the same period of the previous year.
Analysts had estimated SBI to post net profit of around Rs 14,200 crore for the quarter. The numbers improved as provisions fell sharply to Rs 115.28 crore from Rs 3,038.67 crore in the year-ago period.
During the period, its asset quality also improved with the percentage of gross non-performing assets (NPAs) declining to 2.55 per cent from 2.76 per cent on a sequential basis and 3.52 per cent in the same period of the previous year. in absolute terms, the gross NPAs were at Rs 86,974 crore as compared to Rs 91,328 crore in the preceding three months.
The growth in its net profit came on the back of the core net interest income (NII — interest earned minus interest paid) rising 12.27 per cent to Rs 39,500 crore from Rs 35,183 crore in the year-ago period.
The lender’s loan loss provisions showed a decline of almost 10 per cent to Rs 1,815 crore from Rs 2,011 crore in the same quarter of the previous year.
Gross advances of the PSU bank showed a growth of 12.39 per cent to Rs 34,11,252 crore (Rs 30,35,071 crore). This rise was led by SME advances, which grew nearly 23 per cent and retail personal loans, which rose 15.68 per cent to Rs 12,43,421 crore (Rs 10,74,853 crore).
Within retail personal loans, home loans touched Rs 6,72,283 crore, a rise of 13.12 per cent over Rs 5,94,292 crore in the same quarter of the previous year.
While the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has recently sounded a caution about the bank’s unsecured loan book, SBI chairman Dinesh Khara said at a press conference on Saturday that over 80 per cent of such loans are given by the bank to salaried customers and that it has no worries about these loans.
He disclosed that the bank expects to see a credit growth of 13-14 per cent for this fiscal, while adding that corporate loans will improve in the second half.
