State-owned Indian Bank on Monday reported a 47 per cent rise in net profit to Rs 1,447 crore for the March quarter, helped by a decline in bad loans and a rise in interest income.
The bank had earned a net profit of Rs 984 crore in the year-ago period.
During the quarter, the bank's total income increased to Rs 14,238 crore against Rs 11,405 crore a year ago, Indian Bank said in a regulatory filing.
Interest income grew to Rs 12,244 crore during the period under review from Rs 9,832 crore in the corresponding quarter of the preceding fiscal.
The bank's board has recommended a dividend of Rs 8.60 per share or 86 per cent of Rs 10 face value for the year ended March 31, 2023.
Gross non-performing assets (NPAs) were reduced to 5.95 per cent of gross advances as of March 31, 2023, from 8.47 per cent by the end of March 2022.
Net NPAs also came down to 0.90 per cent of the advances from 2.27 per cent a year earlier.
The fall in the bad loans ratio helped cut the provisions towards NPAs for Q4FY23 to Rs 1,040 crore compared to Rs 2,046 crore in the year-ago period.
During the quarter and year ended March 31, 2023, the bank has made additional provisions of Rs 116.26 crore and Rs 363.61 crore, respectively, in certain stressed standard accounts in terms of RBI guidelines on 'Prudential Framework for resolution of stressed assets', it said.
The capital adequacy ratio of the bank declined marginally to 16.49 per cent from 16.53 per cent at the end of March 2022
The board also approved a proposal for raising equity capital aggregating up to Rs 4,000 crore through various modes, including follow-on public offer (FPO)/ rights issue/ qualified institutional placement (QIP)/ preferential issue or any other mode or combination in 2023-24.
Besides, the board has also given approval for raising funds aggregating up to Rs 3,000 crore through the issuance of Basel III Compliant AT 1 Perpetual Bond or Tier-2 Bond in one or more tranches during the current or subsequent financial years based on the requirement.
For the year ended March 2023, the Chennai-based lender's profit increased by 34 per cent to Rs 5,282 crore against Rs 3,945 crore in the previous fiscal.
The total income rose to Rs 52,085 crore compared to Rs 45,772 crore.