Indian Bank posts better show

By Our Corporate Reporter

CHENNAI, JUNE 3. Indian Bank has reported a global operating profit of Rs. 61.59 crores for the year ended March 2001, up from Rs. 23.86 crores. Addressing presspersons here today, the Chairperson Managing Director of the bank, Ms. Ranjana Kumar, said Indian Bank had surpassed the targets for 2000-01, set under the restructuring plan for 2000-03 submitted to the Government of India.

She said the operating profit was arrived at after the amortisation of the first instalment of VRS (voluntary retirement scheme) payment and staff related provisions totalling Rs. 96.01 crores. But for these `extraordinary burden', the operating profit would have been around Rs. 157.60 crores, a six fold increase over the previous year. For the first time in seven years, the domestic operations yielded an operating profit of Rs. 5.94 crores, she said.

The net loss has, thus, been pruned to Rs. 274 crores from Rs. 426.97 crores during the previous year.

Under the restructuring plan accepted by the Government of India, the bank had planned to post net profit during 2001-02. Considering the progress made during the year under reference, had the bank received the recapitalisation funds from the Government as originally envisaged, it would have posted a net profit in the just-concluded year itself, she claimed.

The bank's total income increased to Rs. 2,416.49 crores from Rs.2,173.76 crores with interest income (gross) accounting for Rs. 2,100.18 crores (Rs. 1,898.62 crores). Interest outgo stood at Rs. 1,611.28 crores against Rs. 1,518.67 crores, resulting in a net interest income of Rs. 489 crores. This represents a rise of 29 per cent over the previous year.

Operating expenses amounted to Rs. 743.62 crores (Rs. 631.22 crores) and provisions and contingencies Rs. 335.59 crores (Rs. 450.83 crores).

The bank's global business has crossed the Rs. 31,000 crore mark to Rs. 31,127 crores with deposits accounting for Rs. 21,693 crores (Rs. 19,114 crores) and advances Rs. 9,434 crores (Rs. 8,203 crores). Domestic deposits crossed the landmark of Rs. 20,000 crore and increased by 14.5 per cent to Rs. 20,555 crores against the industry average of 15 per cent. Domestic advances were up by 18.6 per cent to Rs. 8,194 crores.

Despite several constraints, the bank has registered a recovery of Rs. 549 crores in its non-performing assets of which recovery in India amounted to Rs. 482 crores. The gross (global) NPA has been brought down to 21.80 per cent from 32.77 per cent and the net global NPA to 10.03 per cent from 16.18 per cent.

The overseas branches (Singapore and Colombo) reported a significant improvement in performance with an operating profit of Rs. 56.65 crores against Rs. 37.99 crores.

The bank is poised to earn a global net profit during the year. It has projected the global business to go up by over Rs. 5,000 crores or 16.5 per cent to cross the Rs. 36,000-crore mark. The bank is planning to install more ATMs taking up the total to 76 by March next year from 54 as on March 31, 2001.

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Section  : Business
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