Canara Bank Q4 net profit down 15.8 per cent on higher provisioning

Canara Bank has reported a 15.8 per cent decline in net profit at Rs 610.83 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 2014.

The city-based lender had reported a net profit of Rs 725.38 crore in the January-March quarter of 2012-13 fiscal.

Total income increased to Rs 11,609.72 crore in the January-March quarter, against Rs 9,471.57 crore in the year-ago period.

"...the banks net profit was impacted due to higher provisioning towards NPA's (Non Performing Assets) and lower yield on advances during the quarter," a senior bank official told reporters here.

He said total provision made for the quarter was Rs 1,271 crore against Rs 927 crore in the corresponding period last year. Of this,Rs 802 crore was provisioned towards NPA against Rs 346 crore during the same period last year, he added.

The operating profit for the quarter was at Rs 1,882 crore compared to Rs 1,698 crore last year.

For the entire 2013-14, the bank's net profit slipped by 15.1 per cent to Rs 2,438.19 crore, compared to Rs 2,872.10 crore in the previous fiscal.

However, total income of last fiscal jumped to Rs 43,480.37 crore from Rs 37,230.94 crore in 2012-13.

Sharing the details of Bank's performance, Canara Bank Chairman and Managing Director R K Dubey said: "The board has recommended the dividend of 110 per cent for the full year, including an interim dividend of 65 per cent declared in January 2014."

The yield on advances came down to 10.54 per cent from 11.13 per cent in Q4 of the last fiscal and Net Interest Margin (NIM) is at 2.27 per cent compared to 2.40 per cent during the year ago period.

Net NPAs came down to 1.98 per cent from 2.18 per cent at the end of March 2013.

Sharing goals for the Bank by March 2015, Dubey said "the bank aims to reach an aggregate business figure of 8.5 lakh crore, with a deposit growth of 16 to 17 per cent and advances growth of 19-20 per cent as at March 2015."

He said "It plans to take the number of branches from 4,755 to 6,000 and number of ATMs from 6312 to 10,000 by Mar 2015."

Stating that a branch would be opened at Johannesburg, South Africa in May 2014, he said there are plans to open New York branch by June 2014 and eight other international centers by March 2015. "the bank has also identified 11 other centers," he said.