State Bank of India (SBI) net profit for the third quarter ended December jumped 62.327% to ₹8,432 crore on account of increase in interest income and lower provisioning due to better asset quality. This was SBI’s highest quarterly profit, Chairman Dinesh Khara said.
“Overall, it is a decent performance in the quarter. We expect the performance to improve further [in the fourth quarter], The use of borders by corporates has improved. Going forward, we see good growth in corporate credit,” Mr Khara said in a virtual press conference.
“By making additional provisions we have kept our book untouched. This is to relieve the tension seen on the horizon,” he said.
‘Third-wave provision’
The bank made additional provisions of ₹1,700 crore to tide over any incremental stress due to the impact from the third wave of the pandemic. The bank reported a growth of 6.48% in net interest income to ₹30,687 crore. It made a debt-loss provision of ₹3,096 crore as against ₹2,290 crore, an increase of 35.218%. The bank said in a filing that the net interest margin for the quarter stood at 3.4% as compared to 3.34% a year ago.
Slippage increased by 84.7% to ₹2,334 crore as compared to ₹237 crore a year ago. Gross non-performing assets increased by 2.37% to ₹1,20,029 crore, while net NPAs grew by 19% to ₹34,540 crore.
Advances increased by 8.47%. Domestic advances growth of 6.47% was driven by growth in personal retail advances (14.657%). Foreign Office advances expanded by 21.435%. Home loans, which account for 24% of SBI’s home advances, climbed 11.215%. Corporate and SME segments also picked up growth during the quarter. Total deposits grew 8.83%.
The capital adequacy ratio (CAR) stood at 13.23% at the end of December, the lender said. SBI said return on assets rose 19 basis points to 0.64%.
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