Bank of Baroda Q4 net up 17% at Rs 1,518.18 cr

Bank of Baroda posted an increase of 17.3 per cent in net profit at Rs 1,518.18 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 31, on one-time tax gain of Rs 322 crore and higher fee income.

The country's third largest public sector lender had posted a net profit of Rs 1,294.3 crore in the January-March quarter of 2010-11.

Total income during the quarter rose by 25.8 per cent to Rs 9,016 crore from Rs 7,168.6 crore in the year-ago period.

For the fiscal ended March, 2012, the bank reported an 18 per cent rise in net profit to Rs 5,007 crore compared to Rs 4,242.68 crore in 2010-11. The total income rose 34 per cent to Rs 33,096 crore, while net interest income rose 17.2 per cent to Rs 10,317 crore and net interest margin stood at 3.51 per cent for the year.

"We have been able to post sound growth in the last fiscal despite economic challenges faced by the country in the form of industrial slowdown, high inflation and elevated interest rates," Chairman and Managing Director MD Mallya told reporters while announcing the earnings.

He also said the bank is hopeful of continuing with the good performance in the current fiscal.

The city-based bank, which reported a tax gain of around Rs 322 crore in the fourth quarter, posted a 7 per cent rise in net interest income (NII) to Rs 2,797 crore. Similarly, net interest margin stood at 3.44 per cent for domestic operations and 2.96 per cent for international operations during the fourth quarter of 2011-12.

"We hope to maintain the net interest margin at the current level this fiscal," Mallya said.

However, its non-performing asset rose slightly during the year with the gross NPA rising to 1.53 per cent from 1.36 per cent, while the net NPA rose to 0.54 per cent from 0.35 per cent.

About the one-time tax gain, the bank said that it received around Rs 400 crore of tax refund during the fiscal, out of which refund of Rs 78 crore was given credit in the first three quarters, while refund of Rs 322 crore accrued during the fourth quarter.

The restructured accounts stood at Rs 8,515 crore out of which Rs 5,281 crore was restructured during the fourth quarter.

"We don't see any further rise in the restructured accounts this fiscal. Asset quality is not a matter of concern for us," Mallya said.

The bank has reported a 25.7 per cent growth in advances to Rs 2,87,377 crore in 2011-12 and 26 per cent growth in deposits to Rs 3,84,871 crore during this period. The Casa (current and savings accounts) ratio in the overall deposit stood at 33.2 per cent.

"In the current financial year, we hope both advances and deposits will grow by around 19 per cent, which is about 2 per cent above the RBI projections," Mallya said.

The lender had a capital adequacy ratio of 14.67 per cent by March with a tier-I capital of over 10 per cent.