Indian
Bank H1 net profit up
Our
Banking Bureau
6 November 2004
Chennai:
Indian Bank has recorded a 32 per cent growth in net profits
for the first half of the current fiscal at Rs154.10 crore.
The profits were after making substantial provisions of
about Rs350 crore.
These
provisions included Rs110 crore for the likely increase
in salary costs, Rs129 crore for depreciation in value
of investment portfolio, Rs85 crore for general provision
and for the first time Rs30 crore for market risk and
contingencies. The bank's net interest income grew 26
per cent to Rs634 crore.
Announcing
the results, B N Rao, chairman and managing director,
said the bank's deposits had grown at 13.74 per cent
compared to an industry growth of 6.35 per cent. The
bank's advances also grew at 19 per cent compared to
11.5 per cent growth by the banking industry during
this period. Deposits were at Rs33,046 crore while advances
were at Rs16,000 crore as of September. The bank was
able to improve its net interest margin marginally at
3.59 per cent. The yield on advances was at 8.45 per
cent while the cost of deposits was at 4.76 per cent,
down from about 5.61 per cent a year earlier.
Rao
said that the retail loans constituted 24 per cent of
the loan portfolio and it was expected to touch 33 per
cent by the end of the current fiscal. The goal was
to reach a retail portfolio of 50 per cent by fiscal
2007, he said. The corporate loan portfolio had 
also
grown in the first half, he said. The bank's net NPA
was lower at 2.25 per cent compared to 2.71 per cent
for March 2004 and 4.79 per cent a year ago.
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