UCO Bank Q2 Net profit rises 50%

 

State-owned UCO Bank Ltd on Saturday (October 19) reported a 50% year-on-year (YoY) jump in net profit at ₹602 crore for the second quarter that ended September 30, 2024. In the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal, UCO Bank posted a net profit of ₹401.7 crore, the bank said in a regulatory filing.

Net interest income (NII), which is the difference between the interest income a bank earns from its lending activities and the interest it pays to depositors, increased 20%, coming at ₹2,300.4 crore against ₹1,916.5 crore in the corresponding quarter of FY24.

The gross non-performing asset (GNPA) stood at 3.18% in the September quarter against 3.32% in the June quarter. Net NPA came at 0.73% against 0.78% quarter-on-quarter.

Net interest income (NII), which is the difference between the interest income a bank earns from its lending activities and the interest it pays to depositors, increased 20%, coming at ₹2,300.4 crore against ₹1,916.5 crore in the corresponding quarter of FY24.

The gross non-performing asset (GNPA) stood at 3.18% in the September quarter against 3.32% in the June quarter. Net NPA came at 0.73% against 0.78% quarter-on-quarter.

In monetary terms, gross NPA stood at ₹6,293.86 crore against ₹6,420.12 crore quarter-on-quarter, whereas net NPA came at ₹1,406.44 crore against ₹1,473.42 crore quarter-on-quarter.

The bank's Net Interest Margin (NIM) for Q2 of FY25 stood at 3.10%, showing an improvement from 2.84% in the corresponding quarter of the previous year. For the first half of FY25, the NIM was 3.09%, compared to 2.92% for the same period in FY24.

The total business of the bank stood at ₹4,73,704 crore as of September 30, 2024, showing an increase of 13.56% year-on-year, wherein Gross Advances increased by 18% to ₹1,97,927 crore on year-on-year and total deposits grown by 10.57% on year-on-year to ₹2,75,777 crore. Operating profit for the quarter ended on September 30, 2024, stood at ₹1,432 crore showing an increase of 45.82% on year-on-year basis.

Advances in the Retail, Agriculture & MSME (RAM) sectors of the bank increased by 20.16 % to ₹1,08,200 crore on a year-on-year backed by 29.36% year-on-year growth in retail advances,17.41% year-on-year growth in Agriculture advances and 11.32% year-on-year growth in MSME advances. Capital Adequacy Ratio (CRAR) stood at 16.84% as of September 30, 2024, with a Tier I Capital Ratio of 14.59%.

UCO Bank reported a Credit to Deposit Ratio of 71.77% as of September 30, 2024. The bank's total business grew by 13.56% year-on-year, reaching ₹4,73,704 crore, up from ₹4,17,145 crore on September 30, 2023. Total deposits increased by 10.57% year-on-year to ₹2,75,777 crore, compared to ₹2,49,411 crore a year ago.

Gross advances saw robust growth, rising 18% year-on-year to ₹1,97,927 crore, up from ₹1,67,734 crore in the previous year. Business per employee also improved, reaching ₹22.10 crore during Q2 of FY25, up from ₹19.06 crore in the same period of the prior year.

UCO Bank's retail advances reached ₹47,039 crore as of September 30, 2024, marking a strong 29.36% year-on-year growth, driven by its home and vehicle loan portfolios. Home loans grew by 18.98%, while vehicle loans surged by 38.66% year-on-year.

Additionally, the bank’s agriculture advances rose by 17.41% year-on-year, reaching ₹26,987 crore as of September 30, 2024, up from ₹22,985 crore in the previous year.

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UCO Bank Q1 Net profit jumps 147%

Kolkata-headquartered UCO Bank on Monday reported a 147% year-on-year (y-o-y) rise in its net profit for the quarter ended June 2024 at Rs 551 crore, led by higher other income, and interest margin.

The lender’s non-interest income grew 32% y-o-y to Rs 835 crore during Q1FY25, whereas net interest income (NII) was up 12% y-o-y at Rs 2,254 crore. Global net interest margin (NIM), too, rose to 3.09% in the reporting quarter from 2.86% a year ago. The lender is aiming to maintain its NIM in the 2.9%-3% range going ahead, MD & CEO Ashwani Kumar said at a post results conference.

Overall advances of the bank were up 18% y-o-y to Rs 1.93 trillion as in June-end. Retail, agriculture and MSME (RAM) loans formed 61% of the lender’s loan book and grew 19% y-o-y, whereas corporate loans rose 20% y-o-y to Rs 64,611 crore. The bank aims to grow its loan book by 12%-14% in the current fiscal.

On liabilities side, UCO Bank’s deposits grew 7% y-o-y to Rs 2.68 trillion. The lender’s credit-deposit (CD) ratio, accordingly, moved up by 628 basis points (y-o-y) to 72% in Q1FY25. The state-owned bank is comfortable with its CD ratio touching 75% mark and has simultaneously introduced new deposit schemes to attract retail deposits. The bank is targeting to grow deposits by 8-10% in FY25.

UCO Bank’s asset quality also improved, with gross bad loan ratio falling by 116 basis points (bps) y-o-y to 3.32% and net non-performing asset ratio (NNPA) moderating by 40 bps to 0.78% in Q1FY25.

Lastly, the MD said the bank will likely raise Rs 2,000 crore in Q2FY25 or Q3FY25 via equity, which will dilute the government’s stake in the bank by 2%-3%. The Centre held 95% stake in UCO Bank as of June 2024.

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Latest Bank Merger News : 4 PSU Banks likely to be merged

According to sources, the government has formulated its plan for the second round of merger of PSU banks. The government is considering two options for merging four small government banks. To facilitate the merger, changes are being prepared in the Banking Regulation Amendment Act. One option is to merge UCO Bank, Bank of Maharashtra, Punjab & Sind Bank, and Central Bank of India.

The second option involves merging with Union Bank of India, Canara Bank, or Indian Bank according to the banking software. 

The government aims to make these changes in the Banking Regulation Amendment Act to facilitate the merger process. 

The functioning of UCO Bank, Punjab & Sind Bank, Bank of Maharashtra, and Central Bank has shown improvement in the past few years. This is a developing story.

Let us tell you that the government has a 98.25 per cent stake in Punjab & Sind Bank.

While the government has a 93.08 per cent stake in Central Bank, 86.46 per cent in Bank of Maharashtra and a 95.39 per cent in UCO Bank.

The government had announced the merger of 10 public sector banks into four entities in 2019.

This was part of the government's policy to strengthen public sector banks (PSU Bank Mergers) to strengthen their finances for a strong national presence and global reach.

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UCO Bank Q4 Standalone net profit down 9.5%

UCO Bank on Monday said that its board has approved the issuance of fresh equity shares with a face value of Rs 4,000 crore in the current fiscal year.

The Kolkata-based bank also reported a standalone net profit of Rs 525.77 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 2024, a decrease of 9.5 per cent compared to the corresponding period last year.

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Subject to shareholder approval, the lender will explore various methods like QIP (Qualified Institutional Placement), FPO (Follow-on Public Offer), etc, for issuing 400 crore equity shares of Rs 10 each, the bank informed bourses.  

This issuance may occur in multiple tranches during FY25. The capital infusion is expected to support the bank's growth plans.

UCO Bank's total income for the quarter grew by 17.44 per cent to Rs 6,984.61 crore. The bank also witnessed an improvement in asset quality, with gross NPA falling to 3.46 per cent compared to 4.78 per cent a year ago.

The lender further declared a dividend of Rs 0.28 per share for FY24.

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UCO Bank Q3 Net profit falls 23%

 

Public sector lender UCO Bank on January 24 reported a net profit of Rs 503.83 crore for the October-December quarter of financial year (FY) 2023-24, which marks a 22.8 percent falls as compared to Rs 652.97 crore clocked in the year-ago period.

The bank's gross non-performing asset (NPA) stood at 3.85 percent, down from 5.63 percent recorded in the same quarter last year. On the other hand, net NPA for the quarter stood at 0.98 percent, improving from 1.66 percent on a year-on-year basis.

UCO Bank's total business grew by 10.46 percent to Rs.435456 crore on y-o-y, wherein gross advances increased by 18.63 percent to Rs. 179195 crore on y-o-y & total deposits grew by 5.38 percent on y-o-y to Rs.256261 crore.

Public sector lender net interest income (NII) for the nine months ended December 31, 2023, stood at Rs.5914 crore registering a growth of 10 percent on the y-o-y basis as against Rs.5371 crore for the nine months ended December 31, 2023. The Provision Coverage Ratio improved to 95.21 percent as on December 31, 2023. as against 93.58 percent as on December 31, 2022, registering an improvement of 163 bps on y-o-y basis and 14 bps on q-o-q basis.

UCO bank has a network of 3217 domestic branches and 2 overseas branches each at Hong Kong and Singapore Centre & 1 representative office in Iran as of December 31, 2023.

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Latest Bank merger news of PSU banks and PSU Insurance Company

 

A government document shared on social media has triggered speculation about possible PSU bank mergers between Union Bank and UCO Bank, and Bank of India and Bank of Maharashtra. The document, whose source couldn't be verified, said that a Parliamentary committee will hold discussions with four PSU banks in the first week of January under banking laws, which govern mergers and acquisitions, among other things.

However, the government has not yet provided official information regarding the merger. Neither of the four PSU banks mentioned have made any stock exchange filings in this regard.

The document being circulated on X (formerly Twitter) is a government PDF issued in the name of Ramesh Yadav, Under Secretary of the Government of India. The letter is issued to the Governor, Reserve Bank of India, Chairman of LIC, IRDAI, and NABARD, along with MD and CEOs of UCO Bank, Bank of Maharashtra, Bank of India, and Union Bank of India.

The PDF is also addressed to CMDs of New India Assurance Company, United India Insurance Company, Oriental Insurance Company, National Insurance Company, and MD & CEO of SBI Life Insurance Company. The subject of the alleged government PDF states 'Study Visit programme of the Committee on Subordinate Legislation, Lok Sabha to Mumbai and Goa from 2 to 6 January 2024'.

The 2-day programme includes informal discussions with the representatives of Union Bank of India and UCO Bank on January 2, and with representatives of Bank of Maharashtra and Bank of India on January 4, 2024, on rules/regulations framed under Banking Regulations Act 1949 and other relevant Acts as applicable to them and the regulatory mechanism in post-merger scenario.

The Finance Ministry has reportedly issued a clarification, saying that this is a parliamentary committee on subordinate legislation, and it has no connection whatsoever with the policies of bank mergers, according to CNBC-Awaaz. Amid the merger buzz, the ministry reportedly changed the agenda of its meeting. According to the new agenda, there is no mention of the word “Merger”, which simply means that there is no proposal for a merger between Union Bank of India and UCO Bank, Bank of India, and Bank of Maharashtra, said CNBC Awaaz in its report.

Meanwhile, No proposal to merge the public sector banks is being considered by the government and the discussions were part of a ‘routine exercise, Reuters also reported citing two sources from the Ministry of Finance.

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Government To Meet RBI, NPCI And TRAI After UCO Bank Incident: What Caused 'Rs 820 Crore Technical Glitch' At The Bank

Public sector UCO Bank on Thursday said it has been able to recover around Rs 649 crore out of Rs 820 crore, which is about 79 per cent of the amount “erroneously credited” to some customers due to a technical issue in the Immediate Payment Service (IMPS).

“The bank has initiated requisite actions to recover the balance amount of Rs 171 crore and the matter has also been reported to the law enforcement agencies for necessary action,” it said in an exchange filing.

During the period from November 10 to 13, the bank observed that due to technical issue in IMPS, certain transactions initiated by holders of other banks have resulted in credit to the account holders in UCO Bank without actual receipt of money from these banks, UCO bank said in another filing. Money is instantly transferred in the IMPS system from one account to another account.

“The bank, as a precautionary measure, has made the IMPS channel offline and is working closely with the stakeholders to resolve the issue and restore the IMPS services at the earliest,” it said.

“The bank re-iterates and assures that all other critical systems are operational and available. The bank continues to provide safe and secured services to customers,” it said.

The financial impact, if any, due to the development is yet to be ascertained and the bank will endeavour to intimate the ascertainment, the bank said.

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UCO Bank Q2 Net profit falls 20.3%

Public sector lender UCO Bank on November 3 reported a 20.3 percent fall in net profit at Rs 401.67 crore for the July-September quarter of the financial year 2023-24.

The Kolkata-headquartered bank reported a net profit of Rs Rs 504.52 crore in the year-ago period.

The bank's gross non-performing assets (GNPAs) declined to 4.14 percent from 4.48 percent of the year-ago period. Its net non-performing assets (NNPAs) fell to 1.11 percent from 1.18 percent.

Bank's total business grew by 10.56 percent to Rs.417145 crore on y-o-y, wherein Gross Advances up by 17.99 percent to Rs. 167734 crore on y-o-y & total deposits grew by 6.07 percent to Rs.249411 crore on y-o-y. UCO Bank's, Capital Adequacy Ratio (CRAR) improved to 16.83 percent as on September 30, 2023, as compared to 14.02 percent on September 2022, with Tier 1 ratio of 14.19 percent as of Sept 2023 as against 11.25 percent as on Sept 2022 registered an improvement of 281 bps and 294 bps in CRAR and Tier 1 respectively.

The bank has a network of 3213 domestic branches and 2 overseas branches in Hong Kong and Singapore & 1 Representative office in Iran. Out of the total branches, Bank has 61.78 percent i.e. 1985 branches in rural & semi-urban areas. The bank has 2472 ATMs and 8747 BC (Business Correspondents) Points making the total number of 14435 touch points as of September 30, 2023.

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