Central Bank of India on Friday reported a net profit of Rs.169.15 crore in the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2013, helped by lower provisioning and robust growth in net interest income. It had reported a net loss of Rs.105.23 crore in the year-ago period.
“The bank has seen turnaround sequentially...Our net profit has shown sound rise on the back of lower provisions, which was an outcome of improvement in asset quality, coupled with robust core income growth,” bank’s Chairman and Managing Director M. V. Tanksale told reporters here.
During the quarter, provisions were down 48 per cent to Rs.445 crore from Rs.858.69 crore. While net interest income rose 21.5 per cent to Rs.1,534 crore on a year-on-year basis, net interest margin went up to 2.68 per cent from 2.59 per cent last year. For the whole fiscal, net profit shot up to Rs.1,015 crore from Rs 533 crore reported in the previous year.
ADVERTISEMENT
“We aim to reduce the gross NPA to below 4 per cent and net NPA to below 2.5 per cent going ahead,” Mr. Tanksale said. When asked about the money laundering charges by Cobrapost, he said the bank had taken action against the official concerned and was investigating the matter.
The bank also said that it had recovered around Rs.35 crore from Kingfisher account, which had turned NPA, out of its total exposure of Rs.350 crore.