Net interest income (NII) grew 15.41 percent to Rs 2,807 crore during the quarter, compared to Rs 2,432 crore in the year-ago period. (Photo: Shutterstock)
State Bank of Maharashtra (BoM) on Tuesday posted a 44 per cent jump in its profit to Rs 1,327 crore in the second quarter ended September 2024 on the back of improvement in interest income.
The Pune-based lender had posted a net profit of Rs 920 crore in the same quarter a year ago.
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Total revenue rose to Rs 6,809 crore during the quarter under review, against Rs 5,736 crore in the same period last year, BoM said in a filing with the regulator.
On financial performance, BoM Managing Director Nidhu Saxena said net interest margin (NIM) increased to 3.98 percent from 3.88 percent in the same quarter a year ago.
Among the 12 public sector banks, BoM has the highest NIM, Saxena said. The target for NIM for the current fiscal is 3.75-3.85 percent, anticipating an interest rate cut during the year.
He further said that the bank expects the bank’s net profit to cross Rs 5,000 crore during the current fiscal.
In the first half of the year, profits have crossed Rs 2,500 crore and the trend will improve further in the future.
The bank had posted a net profit of Rs 4,055 crore in the previous fiscal.
The bank earned interest income of Rs 6,017 crore during the quarter, compared to Rs 5,068 crore in the same period a year ago.
Net interest income (NII) grew 15.41 percent to Rs 2,807 crore during the quarter, compared to Rs 2,432 crore in the year-ago period.
In terms of asset quality, the bank has shown an improvement, with gross non-performing assets (NPAs) moderating to 1.84 percent of gross loans at end-September 2024, compared to 2.19 percent a year ago.
Similarly, net NPAs or bad loans fell to 0.20 per cent from 0.23 per cent at the end of the second quarter of the previous fiscal.
Provisions The coverage ratio decreased marginally to 98.31 percent, compared to 98.40 percent in September 2023.
Provisions for bad loans for the second quarter remained flat at Rs 598 crore, compared to Rs 597 crore set aside for the same period last year.
During the quarter, the BoM raised Rs 3,500 crore from Qualified Institutional Placement, while Rs 1,000 crore was raised from Tier II bonds.
After QIP, the government’s stake in the bank fell by 79.60 percent, compared to 86.46 percent in the previous quarter.
Asked about further dilution of stakes by the government, Saxena did not expect this during the current financial year even though the bank has received board approval for Rs 5,000 crore from the share sale.
Regarding the capital adequacy ratio, the bank said it stood at 17.26 percent, with a Common Equity Tier 1 (CET1) ratio of 11.97 percent.
The bank’s total revenue grew 16.90 percent to Rs 493,793 crore.
However, current account savings (CASA) as a percentage of the total fell to 49.29 percent from 50.71 percent at the end of the same quarter a year ago.
(Only the headline and image of this report may have been reworked by Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is automatically generated from a syndicated feed.)
First publication: October 15, 2024 | 4:53 PM IST