Bank of Maharashtra net jumps 50% in Q3

Bank of Maharashtra reported a 50 per cent increase in net profit to Rs 135.54 crore in the October-December 2011 period on the back of a healthy growth in net interest income and non-interest income.

The public sector bank had reported a net profit of Rs 90 crore in the corresponding period last year.

In the reporting period, net interest income increased by 24 per cent to Rs 645 crore (Rs 522 crore in the October-December 2010 period) and non-interest income was up by 21 per cent to Rs 150 crore (Rs 123.50 crore).

The Chairman and Managing Director, Mr A. S. Bhattacharya, said incremental growth in advances was flat. The advances as on December-end 2011 stood at Rs 50,751 crore (Rs 50,905 crore as at September-end 2011).

The bank is seeing good pick up in advances to the agriculture, micro, small and medium enterprises and corporates, observed Mr Bhattacharya.

“We have a Rs 10,000-crore loan sanctions pipeline,” he said.

Deposits nudged up from Rs 69,376 crore as at September-end 2011 to Rs 69,926 crore as at December-end 2011.

Higher provisioning

According to Mr M. G. Sanghvi, Executive Director, the bank has made higher provisioning of Rs 290 crore in the current quarter, against Rs 218 crore in the corresponding year-ago period to improve the provisioning-coverage ratio to 87 per cent to 87 per cent from 60 per cent.

The bank is expecting a capital infusion of Rs 860 crore from the Government during this quarter. This infusion will push up the Government's stake in the bank from 79 per cent to about 80 per cent, said the bank's chief.

Shares of BoM closed 1.77 per cent up at Rs 45.90 per share on the BSE, against the previous close of Rs 45.10.

kram@thehindu.co.in