Karur Vysya Bank posts 10% rise in net profit

Karur Vysya Bank has registered a 10.3 per cent increase in its net profit for the quarter ended December 2011 as compared to the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal.

The bank's net profit rose to Rs 124.92 crore (Rs 113.22 crore); net interest income increased 11.3 per cent to Rs 234.66 crore (Rs 210.69 crore) and interest income by 48.8 per cent to Rs 856.33 crore (Rs 575.49 crore).

Commenting on the performance, KVB's Chief Executive, Mr K. Venkataraman, said “though this is not anything great, we have met our internal targets”.

The bank's Net Interest Margin (NIM) dipped from 3.39 per cent in March 2011 to 3.06 per cent.

Mr Venkataraman said that there was no pressure on margin and he does not foresee it in the coming quarter as well due to softening of interest rates coupled with the 50 bps reduction in the CRR.

KVB though is not planning to cut its advances or deposit rate for now, not until there is a signal from the banking regulator, he said.

The amount set aside towards provisions and contingencies more than doubled this quarter to Rs 36.02 crore (Rs 14.3 crore). Mr Venkataraman said it included NPA provision, standard assets and investment depreciation and there was no sector specific issue.

“Some mid-sized corporates are under pressure. We are going to focus on NPA recovery, CASA and fee-income. We want to see good growth in income,” he added.

The Net NPA rose marginally from 0.19 per cent during the third quarter of 2010-11 to 0.29 per cent in the just ended quarter.

To a query on credit offtake, the KVB chief said “it is quite dull at present with corporates putting off project proposals. However, there have been some enhancements and take over of loans from other banks.”

The bank's business mix crossed Rs 52,000 crore with deposits growing by 35 per cent to Rs 30,107 crore and advances increasing to Rs 22,283 crore.

The bank is targeting a total business of Rs 55,000 crore by end March 2012.

With the addition of 32 branches and 100 ATMs this quarter, the branch network of KVB rose to 437 and 712 respectively.