PNB posts Rs 586 cr profit in Q4

NEW DELHI: State-owned (PNB) on Friday posted a standalone profit of Rs 586.33 crore for the fourth quarter ended March, aided by good increase in interest income.

The second largest public sector lender had reported a loss of Rs 697.20 crore in January-March period of 2019-20.

The bank’s total income during the March quarter rose to Rs 22,531.73 crore from Rs 16,388.32 crore in the year-ago period.

Interest earned during the quarter rose by 36 per cent to Rs 18,789.53 crore from Rs 13,858.98 crore earlier, PNB said in a regulatory filing.

During the quarter, the bank earned an operating profit of Rs 5,634.31 crore as against Rs 3,932.28 crore.

The financial numbers are not strictly comparable as Oriental Bank of Commerce and United Bank of India were merged into PNB effective April 1, 2020, it added.

On the asset quality front, PNB witnessed marginal improvement as the gross non-performing assets (NPAs) were brought down to 14.12 per cent of gross advances at the end of March 2021, from 14.21 per cent in March 2020.

Net NPAs also dipped to 5.73 per cent as against 5.78 per cent in the year-ago period.

In absolute value terms, gross NPAs stood at Rs 1,04,423.42 crore at end of 2020-21, higher than Rs 73,478.76 crore reported in the previous fiscal.

Net NPAs were valued at Rs 38,575.70 crore as against Rs 27,218.89 crore.

As a result, the provisioning for bad loans during the March quarter rose to Rs 5,293.89 crore compared to Rs 4,618.27 crore. However, provision other than tax and contingencies declined to Rs 4,686.04 crore from Rs 4,901.31 crore.

For the full fiscal 2020-21, the lender’s profit surged six-fold to Rs 2,021.62 crore, as against Rs 363.34 crore during 2019-20.

Total income during the fiscal rose to Rs 93,561.62 crore as against Rs 64,306.13 crore in FY20.

During 2020-21, the bank issued 106.70 crore shares having face value of Rs 2 each for cash to qualified eligible buyers pursuant to the Qualified Institutional Placement (QIP) at a premium of Rs 33.50 per share, aggregating Rs 3,788.04 crore.

“This has resulted in an increase of Rs 213.41 crore in the issued and paid up equity share capital and Rs 3,563.91 crore (Net of Issue Expenses) in share premium account,” it said.

During the quarter and year ended March 31, 2021, PNB issued Basel III compliant additional tier-I bonds of Rs 495 crore through private placements.

The provision coverage ratio on March 31, 2021 rose to 80.14 per cent as compared to 77.79 per cent earlier.