Bank of Maharashtra Q2 profit up 13% on higher interest income, lower provisioning

 

Bank of Maharashtra on Monday reported 13.44 per cent growth in standalone net profit at Rs 130 crore for September quarter, helped by lower provisioning and higher interest income. “The bank logged a profit after tax of Rs 115 crore in the second quarter of 2019-20. On a consolidated basis, its profit stood at Rs 130.44 crore, compared to Rs 115.15 crore in the year-ago period.”

“Profit increase was mainly due to the net interest income (NII), which grew by around 5 per cent. There was considerable reduction in operating expenses by around Rs 75 crore. Provisions have also come down as asset quality improved,” Managing Director and CEO A S Rajeev told reporters.

He said the bank had an interest reversal of Rs 300 crore which it kept as provisions in the second quarter for COVID-19 and for some of the accounts that were not classified as NPA. Rajeev said had the bank not kept aside the interest reversal amount as provisions, NII growth would have been 14-15 per cent in the second quarter.

Net interest margin stood at 2.62 per cent for the quarter as against 2.77 per cent in the year-ago quarter. Rajeev said, “so far the bank has restructured 800 small accounts, including MSMEs, worth Rs 40 crore, under the Reserve Bank of India’s one-time restructuring scheme for accounts affected by COVID-19 related stress.” It has restructured 25 MSME accounts worth Rs 4-5 crore. For the corporate loans, the lender received two applications, of which one is not eligible.

“The other application of amount (bank’s exposure) Rs 200 crore is pending. It is a consortium account and a decision will be taken at the consortium level,” he said. “Gross NPA reduced to 8.81 per cent from 16.86 per cent. Net NPA declined to 3.30 per cent as against 5.48 per cent. Total provisions stood at Rs 676 crore as against Rs 637 crore. Provision for NPAs was Rs 43 crore as against Rs 404 crore.” Provision Coverage ratio improved to 87.15 per cent as compared to 82.71 per cent. The bank holds cumulative COVID-19 provision including interest of Rs 925 crore (out of which Rs 500 crore provision was made in the second quarter).

“In pursuance of the Supreme court order, the bank has not declared those accounts as NPA which were not declared NPA till August 31, 2020.” As a matter of prudence, the lender made additional provision of Rs 120 crore. Capital adequacy stood at 13.18 per cent with common equity tier 1 ratio of 10.31 per cent as at end-September. The bank’s total deposits grew 12.15 per cent year-on-year to Rs 1,58,626 crore. Gross advances rose 13.13 per cent to Rs 1,03,408 crore.