Punjab & Sind Bank Q4 profit slumps 70% to Rs 139 cr

New Delhi: State-owned Punjab & Sind Bank on Friday posted a 70 per cent decline in net profit to Rs 139 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 2024 on account of provisioning for bad loans.

The bank had earned a net profit of Rs 457 crore a year ago.

However, the total income increased to Rs 2,894 crore during the quarter under review against Rs 2,652 crore in the same period last year, Punjab & Sind Bank said in a regulatory filing.

Interest income also grew to Rs 2,481 crore during the period under review from Rs 2,105 crore in the corresponding quarter of the preceding fiscal.

On the asset quality side, the bank's gross non-performing assets (NPAs) moderated to 5.43 per cent of gross advances as of March 31, 2024, from 6.97 per cent at the end of March 2023.

Its net NPAs also declined to 1.63 per cent of the advances from 1.84 per cent at the end of 2023.

However, the bank made a Rs 111 crore provisioning for bad loans for the quarter under review. However, there was a write-back of Rs 290 crore during the same quarter a year ago.

For the financial year ended March 2024, the bank's net profit more than halved to Rs 595 crore compared to Rs 1,313 crore in the previous fiscal.

Its total income increased to Rs 10,915 crore in FY24 against Rs 8,933 crore in the preceding fiscal.

The board has recommended a dividend at Rs 0.20 (2 per cent) per equity share of face value Rs 10 each fully paid up for the 2023-24 subject to approval at the ensuing annual general meeting.

Capital Adequacy Ratio (CRAR) improved to 17.16 per cent over 17.10 per cent on March 31, 2023.