UCO Bank Q1 net profit jumps 80% to Rs 223 crore

New Delhi: State-owned UCO Bank on Friday posted an 80 per cent jump in net profit to Rs 223 crore in the April-June quarter, mainly due to a decline in bad loans.

The Kolkata-based lender had posted a net profit of Rs 124 crore in the year-ago period.

The total income in the first quarter of the current fiscal rose to Rs 5,857 crore against Rs 3,797 crore, UCO Bank said in a regulatory filing.

The lender's interest income also increased to Rs 5,224 crore from Rs 3,851 crore in the same quarter a year ago.

On the asset quality side, the bank witnessed improvement with the gross non-performing assets (NPAs) easing to 4.48 per cent of the gross advances by June 2023 from 7.42 per cent a year ago.

The net NPA too declined to 1.18 per cent against 2.49 per cent in the same period of the previous year.

However, provisions for bad loans increased to Rs 389 crore compared to Rs 268 crore in the same quarter a year ago.

Provision Coverage Ratio of the bank increased to 94.88 per cent as of June 2023 against 91.96 per cent at the end of the first quarter of the previous financial year.

The capital adequacy ratio of the bank improved to 16.85 per cent at the end of June compared to 14.13 per cent a year ago.

During the quarter, the bank made a provision of Rs 90 crore on an ad hoc basis for arrears pursuant to the proposed 12th bipartite settlement due from November 1, 2022.