Canara Bank net profit triples as provisions fall

Mumbai, July 27 Public sector lender Canara Bank on Tuesday reported net profit of Rs 1,177 crore for the June quarter, a 190 per cent rise over Rs 406 crore last year, helped by higher non-interest income and a fall in provisions for bad loans.

The Bengaluru-based lender's stock ended 1.47 per cent higher on the BSE at Rs 148.8 a piece.

The bank said in a statement that its net interest income rose just 0.84 per cent year-on-year (YoY) in Q1FY22 to Rs 6,147 crore versus Rs 6,096 crore. The net interest margin fell to 2.71 per cent for Q1 against 2.84 per cent in the year-ago period.

But it made more of this fall from big 67.47 per cent jump in non-interest earnings in the April-June quarter. The non-interest income rose to Rs 4,438 crore, from Rs 2,650 crore in Q1FY21.

Asset quality profile improved with gross non-performing assets down to 8.5 per cent in June, from 8.84 per cent last year. Net NPA also fell to 3.46 per cent, from 3.95 per cent in June 2020. Its provision coverage ratio improved to 81.18 per cent, from 78.95 per cent a year ago.

At Rs 2,335 crore, provisions for non-performing assets fell 34.23 per cent, from Rs 3,550 crore in Q1FY21.

Under the Covid-19 resolution framework 2.0, the bank has restructured loans worth Rs 13,234 crore for 3,50,000 accounts.

Advances grew 5.23 per cent to Rs 6.84 lakh crore, while deposits grew 12.34 per cent to Rs 10.21 lakh crore. The retail loan portfolio rose 9.6 per cent YoY to Rs 1.15 lakh crore.

The bank also plans to raise Rs 2,500 crore of equity capital from institutional investors in the current financial year. It is also looking at issuing additional Tier -1 bonds (AT-1 bonds) worth Rs 4,000 crore and tier II bonds worth Rs 2,500 crore in FY22.

The bank's total capital adequacy ratio was at 13.36 per cent with tier I of 10.34 per cent.