State-run lender Dena Bank has reported a net loss of ₹178.47 crore in the third quarter of 2018-19 as against a ₹380 crore loss during the same period of the previous financial year.
This was mainly due to provisioning for bad loans almost halving to ₹519.37 crore during the reporting period from ₹1,044.28 crore in October-December 2017. The bank upgraded non-performing assets (NPA) worth ₹417.08 crore during the quarter compared with ₹98.83 crore in the year-earlier period.
Cash recoveries from NPAs sharply improved to ₹1,036.40 crore from ₹180 crore.
While the gross NPA ratio of the bank increased to 19.77% from 19.56%, but the net NPA ratio declined to 10.44% from 11.52%.
Provision coverage ratio stood at 66.6% at December-end 2018. The lender, which is under the prompt corrective action framework of the RBI, saw its loan book shrinking by 9.2%, or ₹6,709 crore, to ₹65,734 crore as on December 31 2018, from ₹72,443 crore a year-ago. Similarly, outstanding deposits declined by almost 4% to ₹1.01 lakh crore.
