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Aided by strong operating performance, Punjab National Bank (PNB) reported a 307 per cent increase in standalone net profit for the quarter ended June 30 at ₹1,255 crore (against ₹308 crore in the same period last year).
This is the highest quarterly net profit recorded by the bank in the last 12 quarters, Atul Kumar Goel, Managing Director & CEO, said.
The latest bottomline performance is also 8.28 per cent higher than net profit of ₹1,159 crore recorded in the March 2023 quarter. For the entire fiscal 2022-23, PNB recorded a net profit of ₹2,507 crore.
PNB is also confident of achieving its earlier declared guidance of net profit of ₹4,000 crore for the current fiscal. “We stand by the earlier guidance. We will achieve it. We may look at revising it upwards after seeing our second quarter performance (September quarter),” Goel told businessline when asked if PNB would reset its profit target for current fiscal in light of a strong show in Q1.
The bank has revised its guidance for both gross NPA and net NPA for year ended March 2024, Goel said.
As against the earlier declared aim of bringing down the gross NPA (as a percentage of advances) to 7 per cent by March 2024, PNB has now set the guidance on this front at 6.5 per cent. Similarly, in the case of net NPA, the guidance has been revised from the earlier declared aim of less than 2 per cent as of end-March 2024.
“We are now hopeful of bringing down the net NPA level to 1 per cent or below 1 per cent by March 2024,” Goel said.
Asked about the credit and deposit growth target for the current fiscal, Goel said PNB is eyeing credit growth of 12-13 per cent and deposit growth of 10-11 per cent this fiscal. Goel also noted that deposit rates have peaked and added that definitely repricing of deposits will happen.
Also read: No plans to sell stake in Canara HSBC Life Insurance, says PNB Chief Goel
Credit, deposit growth
On recoveries, Goel said the bank was well on track to achieve an overall recovery of ₹22,000 crore for the current fiscal. In the first quarterl, PNB made recoveries to the tune of ₹5,470 crore, higher than the slippages of ₹2,390 crore.
On fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi’s case, Goel said the bank was hopeful of recovering ₹50-100 crore from the properties that were collateralised earlier with the bank.
On a consolidated basis, PNB on Wednesday reported a net profit of ₹1,342 crore, much higher than consolidated net profit of ₹282 crore recorded in the same quarter last fiscal.
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