SBI net profit rises 23%

Better asset management, treasury gains and a healthy rise in interest income, saw State Bank of India (SBI)’s net profit rise 23 per cent in the March quarter. Net profit stood at ~3,742 crore, against ~3,041 crore in the corresponding period last year.

The country’s biggest lender, State Bank of India (SBI), reported a 23 per cent increase in net profit to ~3,742 crore in the March quarter, fourth and final one (Q4) of 2014-15, higher than what the Street had estimated.

There was a four-fold increase in treasury gains, coupled with less of slippage to the bad loans category. Lower slippages also helped improve the net interest income by 14 per cent from the corresponding period a year before, to ~14,711 crore, despite a tepid 7.25 per cent growth in loans.

Improved asset quality led the scrip to surge five per cent soon after the results were announced but it later closed at ~282.45 or 2.4 per cent lower than the previous close, on profit booking.

The net interest margin (NIM) for the quarter was 3.54 percent as compared to 3.49 percent during the corresponding period of last year. The bank expects to hold NIM at 3.5 per cent.

Lower fresh slippages — ~4,769 crore against ~7,987 crore during the corresponding period of last year — and robust recoveryhelpedtheratioofgrossnonperforming assets (NPAs) to decline to 4.25 per cent, against 4.95 per cent at the end of the March quarter of FY14. The ratio was 4.9 per cent at the end of the December quarter. During financial year 2014-15, gross NPAs came down by ~4,880 crore, to close the year at ~56,725 crore. Net NPAs reduced to 2.1 per cent of the total, against 2.57 per cent at the end of FY14. There was a recovery of ~4,485 crore in the quarter, against ~3,389 crore in Q4 of FY14.

Bank Chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya said non-performing loans had come down but the provision coverage ratio (PCR) had also improved, driving home the point that the bank was not showing profit at the cost of provisioning.

“We have seen the stress in assets lessening, as both GNPA and NPA have come down. At the same time, the PCR has gone up by 557 basis points. We had the provision for a counter-cyclic provision of ~1,100 crore, which we did not avail,” she said. The PCR at end-March was 69.13 per cent, as against 62.86 per cent a year before.

Non-interest income grew 29.3 per cent in Q4, mainly aided by a 300 per cent rise in profit from sale in investments, ~1,659 crore against ~401 crore in the same period last year.

“We had a write-off (of) ~4,874 crore in the last quarter, mainly on account of sale of two-three large loans to asset reconstruction companies (ARCs),” she said.

She welcomed the banking regulator’s decision to allow banks to amortise their losses over two years for NPA sale to ARCs. Bhattacharya highlighted the loan recovery efforts, of ~100 crore from each of five circles (SBI has 14 circles).