South Indian Bank (SIB) has announced a 9.59 % year-on-year increase in its third quarter net profit at R111.38 crore. The lender said that focus on retail lending and CASA facilitated the growth from R101.63 crore a year-ago. Sequentially, the net profit has increased only marginally to R111. 38 crore from R110.52 crore in the second quarter of the current fiscal.
Total income of the lender increased to R1,737.47 crore during the quarter under review from R1,560.98 crore in the year-ago period. The total advances increased by R4,633 crore to R45,234 crore, a credit growth of 11.41 %. Net interest income (NII) during the quarter increased 2.66% year-on-year to R417.52 crore.
Emphasis on retail lending and CASA has contributed to the good performance in a challenging environment, VG Mathew, managing director and CEO of the bank said. CASA now stands at around 25.92 % of total deposits. NRI deposit increased by 20.28 % despite slowdown in NRI remittances from the Gulf region, he said.
The growth drivers are SME loans, home loan and LAP, agriculture and auto loan, he said and added that the bank’s focus in the next fiscal will be on the export sector and disbursal of corporate loans in the range of R25-100 crore to garner more business.
Asset quality of SIB declined during the quarter ended December 2016 with gross non-performing assets (NPAs) increasing to 3.98% from 2.75% in the quarter ended December 2015. Net NPA rose to 2.52% from 1.80% in corresponding quarter last year. In absolute terms, gross NPAs jumped 61.28% year-on-year to R1,786.98 crore and net NPAs were up 55.82% at R1,115.66 crore in the quarter ended December 2016.
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