State Bank of India (SBI) on Friday reported better-than-expected numbers for the December quarter because of a fall in provisions for bad loans, while asset quality also showed an improvement.
The country’s largest bank registered a net profit of Rs 5,583 crore during the period, which marked a growth of 41.18 per cent over the same period a year ago. This was the highest ever quarterly net profit recorded by the bank.
Loan loss provisions tanked 41.36 per cent to Rs 8,193 crore from Rs 13,971 crore in the year-ago period. During the period, the lender witnessed a rise in recoveries from bad loans as it rose to Rs 13,553 crore compared with Rs 3,931 crore in the preceding three months.
However, fresh slippages rose to Rs 16,525 crore from Rs 8,805 crore on a sequential basis. This was due to its exposure to Dewan Housing Finance. In terms of asset quality, the gross non-performing assets (NPAs) in absolute terms fell to Rs 1,59,661 crore compared with Rs 1,61,636 crore in the second quarter and Rs 1,87,765 crore in the year ago period. The percentage of gross NPAs to total loans also dipped to 6.94 per cent from 7.19 per cent in the previous quarter.
“This is a very strong operating performance for SBI in terms of profitability, asset quality, the provision coverage ratio and capital adequacy,” SBI chairman Rajnish Kumar said.