Canara Bank’s net profit in the second quarter fell 27.10 per cent to ₹260.18 crore, from ₹356.91 crore in the same period last year, due to a big rise in provisioning.
However, operating profit (before provisions and contingencies) rose 15.83 per cent to ₹2,479.82 crore (₹2,140.77 crore during the same period last year). EPS (basic) of the bank stood at ₹4.36 (₹6.57 last year).
“Heavy provisioning, including for NCLT cases, saw our bank’s profits getting impacted,” said Rakesh Sharma, Managing Director and CEO.
“However, we were able to contain fresh slippage to ₹3,367 crore in the second quarter of this fiscal as compared to ₹5,511 crore in the first quarter of this fiscal. Cash recovery in Q2 aggregated to ₹1,347 crore,” he added.
The provisioning against non-performing assets (NPAs) rose to ₹1,949.81 crore from ₹1,558.37 crore in the September quarter last year.
Net interest income (NII) rose by 13.96 per cent to ₹2,783 crore.
The bank’s gross NPAs stood at 10.51 per cent (9.81 per cent) and net NPA, 7.02 per cent (6.69 per cent).
Current account, savings account (CASA) deposits rose to ₹1,55,079 crore, a year-on-year growth of 17.72 per cent.
Capital adequacy ratio (CAR) improved to 12.45 per cent, from 12.19 per cent a year ago. Provision coverage ratio (PCR) also improved to 54.75 per cent, from 51.75 per cent last year.