Andhra Bank has registered close to 6.2 per cent dip in its net profit during the first quarter of 2012-13.
The public sector bank’s net during the quarter stood at Rs.362 crore against Rs.385 crore in the corresponding period in the previous fiscal. Andhra Bank Chairman and Managing Director B. A. Prabhakar said the decline in credit offtake and higher provisioning towards non-performing assets dragged the net.
Total income increased to Rs.3,357.22 crore, Rs.2,851.18 crore during the year ago period, a rise of 17.7 per cent. Retail banking contributed Rs.907.05 crore while income from wholesale banking grew to Rs.1,660 crore, he said announcing the first quarter results here on Monday.
Credit offtake
He said credit offtake, particularly corporate loans, had been tardy during the quarter, but hoped that credit growth would be around 18 per cent at the end of the year.
Provisioning towards NPAs (non-performing assets) during the quarter was Rs.157.25 crore against Rs.117 crore. Gross NPAs stood at 2.72 per cent (Rs.2,358 crore). Net interest income grew 3.1 per cent to Rs.938 crore.
Replying to queries, he said the recent cut in statutory liquidity ratio by one percentage point by the RBI would provide an additional liquidity of Rs.1,500 crore to the bank, but the bank was yet to take a call on cutting the interest rates.
The bank had targeted to add 200 new branches during the year to its network of 1,716 and another 200 ATMs, 45 per cent of which would be located in rural areas.
