Indian Bank posts net loss of Rs 190 cr in Q4 on higher NPA provisioning

State-owned Indian Bank Tuesday reported a net loss of Rs 189.77 crore in the fourth quarter of the financial year ended March 2019, as high level of bad loans required substantial amount to be kept as provisioning parking. The bank had registered a net profit of Rs 131.98 crore during the similar January-March quarter of 2017-18.

Its total income in the March 2019 quarter, however, was up at Rs 5,537.47 crore as against Rs 4,954.21 crore in the corresponding period a year ago, the bank said in a regulatory filing. For the full year, the bank's net profit was Rs 320.93 crore on a consolidated basis, as against Rs 1,262.92 crore in 2017-18. Total income was Rs 21,073.50 crore in 2018-19, up from Rs 19,531.91 crore a year ago.

On the bank's asset quality, the gross non-performing assets (NPAs) or bad loans reduced to 7.11 per cent of the gross advances by the end of March 2019, as against 7.37 per cent at the end of March 2018.

Net NPAs came down to 3.75 per cent as against 3.81 per cent.

The overall provisioning and contingencies for the March 2019 quarter were at Rs 1,638.83 crore, higher than Rs 1,546.34 crore a year ago. Of this, the provisioning for bad loans was Rs 1,432.94 crore, as against Rs 1,772.03 crore in the year-ago quarter.

During the year ended March 31, the bank recovered Rs 585.84 crore in one of the accounts by way of the NCLT settlement, it said.

For the provisions of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, the bank is holding a total provision of Rs 83.07 crore as on March 31, 2019, Indian Bank said.

Non-performing loan provision coverage ratio is 65.72 per cent as on March 31, 2019.

On the divergence in asset classification and provisioning for NPAs for 2017-18, Indian Bank has showed a gap of Rs 178.50 crore in gross NPAs; Rs 41.40 crore in divergence in net NPAs and the divergence in provisioning stood at Rs 1,120.90 crore.

Shares of the bank closed at 2.08 per cent higher at Rs 232.70 apiece on the BSE.