PNB Q1 profit surges four-fold to Rs 1,255 crore aided by improvement in interest income

New Delhi: State-owned Punjab National Bank (PNB) on Wednesday posted a four-fold surge in standalone net profit at Rs 1,255 crore in the April-June quarter, mainly due to decline in bad loans and improvement in interest income.

The country's second largest lender had posted a net profit of Rs 308 crore in the year-ago period.

Total income in the first quarter of the current fiscal rose to Rs 28,579 crore as against Rs 21,294 crore, PNB said in a regulatory filing.

The lender's interest income also increased to Rs 25,145 crore from Rs 18,757 crore in the same quarter a year ago.

PNB managing director Atul Kumar Goel said the bank has earned highest ever quarterly profit in the last 12 quarters.

PNB recorded a 26 per cent growth in net interest income at Rs 9,504 crore, the highest ever for the bank.

The bank's asset quality showed improvement with gross Non Performing Assets (NPAs) easing to 7.73 per cent of the gross advances by June 2023 from 11.2 per cent a year ago.

The net NPA too declined to 1.98 per cent as against 4.26 per cent in the same period of the previous year.

Banking on recovery, Goel said, the bank expects gross NPA would come down to 6.5 per cent while net NPA to stay less than 1 per cent by the end of current financial year.

As a result, provisions for bad loans came down to Rs 4,374 crore in April-June FY24 as against Rs 4,814 crore in the year-ago period.

At the same time, the Provisioning Coverage Ratio increased to 89.83 per cent as against 83.04 per cent at the end of June 30, 2022.

As far as recovery is concerned, he said, the bank aims recovery of about Rs 22,000 crore during this financial year.

During the quarter, he said, the bank has made a recovery of Rs 5,417 crore from NPAs as against Rs 7,057 crore in the first quarter of the last year.

Asked about recovery from attached properties of Nirav Modi, he said, the bank expects Rs 50-100 crore from sale of properties during the ongoing quarter.

With regard to fresh addition to NPA, he said, slippages were Rs 2,258 crore during the quarter as compared to Rs 5,890 crore in the same period a year ago.

On a consolidated basis, the bank reported a net profit of Rs 1,342 crore in the quarter ended in June as against Rs 282 crore a year ago.

The consolidated financial result of the bank comprises five subsidiaries and 15 associates.

The capital adequacy ratio of the bank improved to 15.54 per cent at the end of June compared to 14.62 per cent in the year-ago period.

About capital, he said, the board has given the approval for Rs 12,000 crore fund raising during the current financial year. Of this Rs 7,000 crore would be raised from Tier I and remaining Rs 5,000 crore from Tier II bonds.

During the quarter ended on June 30, the bank has raised Basel III compliant Tier II bonds of Rs 3,090 crore. Further, during the same period, the bank has redeemed Basel III compliant Tier II bonds of Rs 500 crore on maturity.

He said further fund raising would be done as per the requirement.

Asked about business growth, Goel said, advances would expand by 12-13 per cent while deposit mobilisation would see a growth of 10-11 per cent during FY24.

Pending settlement of the bipartite agreement on wage revision (due from November 1, 2022), an adhoc amount of Rs 283.84 crore has been provided during the quarter ended June 30, 2023 towards wage revision. The aggregate provision held by the bank in this regard is Rs 743.35 crore as on June 30, 2023.