The country’s largest lender State Bank of India (SBI) reported a 66.73 per cent jump in its standalone profit after tax (PAT) to Rs 7,627 crore in the quarter ended September, aided by higher net interest income and improvement in asset quality.
The lender had reported a standalone profit after tax of Rs 4,574 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal.
“The bank has performed well on most of the profitability parameters during the quarter. The net profit for the quarter stands at Rs 7,627 crore. It has witnessed an increase of 66.73 per cent on a year-on-year basis and is the highest ever quarterly net profit,” SBI Chairman Dinesh Khara told reporters.
The bank has fully provided Rs 7,418 crore due to a change in family pension rules, even as the regulator granted dispensation to amortise in five years.
Net interest income (NII) for Q2 FY22 increased by 10.65 per cent to Rs 31,184 crore against Rs 28,181 crore in the year-ago quarter.
Domestic net interest margins (NIM) improved by 16 basis points (bps) to 3.50 per cent in the second quarter of this fiscal from 3.34 per cent last year.
Gross non-performing assets (GNPAs) declined by 38 basis points to 4.90 per cent from 5.28 per cent. Net NPAs improved to 1.52 per cent from 1.59 per cent in the year-ago period. Khara said going forward there are no major concerns related to asset quality because of a significant improvement in the bank’s underwriting process and also as its collection machinery has become more efficient.
Fresh slippages in the quarter stood at Rs 4,176 crore. Recovery and up-gradation were at Rs 7,407 crore.
The slippage ratio was 0.66 per cent and credit cost declined to 0.43 per cent during the second quarter of the current fiscal.
During the quarter, there was a write-back of around Rs 4,000 crore on account of provision made for Dewan Housing Finance (DHFL), Khara said. Total provision during the quarter fell 74.47 per cent to Rs 3,034 crore from Rs 11,886 crore in the year-ago quarter. Provision Coverage Ratio (PCR) stood at 87.68 per cent.
Capital adequacy ratio (CAR) at the end of the second quarter of FY22 stood at 13.35 per cent.
Gross advances rose by 6.17 per cent to Rs 25,30,777 crore. Domestic corporate advances dipped by 3.91 per cent. Retail personal loans jumped by 15.17 per cent, with home loan growth at 10.74 per cent. “As far as our overall advances growth is concerned, it stands at over 6 per cent and we would like to see it growing up to 10 per cent. Much of it could be a function of the real economy,” Khara said. He expects retail loans to continue to grow at a faster pace. Khara said as far as term loans are concerned, the bank has undisbursed loans of 27 per cent and working capital limits for large corporates are unutilised to the extent of almost 50 per cent. “We have got a pipeline of Rs 1.15 lakh crore already and we expect that in term loans of as much as Rs 2.25 lakh crore will see some availment. There is clear visibility of the demand and with the demand coming in, capacity augmentation is happening,” he said.
Deposits grew by 9.77 per cent to Rs 38,09,630 crore as of September 30, 2021.
The bank’s scrip closed at Rs 527.65 apiece, up 1.14 per cent on BSE.
with agency inputs.
