South Indian Bank posts 11% growth in net profit in Q1

South Indian Bank has registered a 11 per cent growth in its net profit in Q1 at ₹81.65 crore against ₹73.26 crore during the corresponding period of the previous year. The operating profit has grown from ₹317.63 crore to ₹403.68 crore, a growth of 27 per cent.

According to VG Mathew, MD & CEO, there has been a good growth in the retail, agriculture and MSME portfolios. As part of the business strategy to reduce its exposure in the corporate advances, the bank has brought down the share of corporate advances from 32.36 per cent as on June 30, 2019 to 27.74 per cent as on June 30, 2020.

He added that the growth in the desired portfolios and the reduction in the corporate exposure has further strengthened the bank’s balance sheet. The retail portfolio has grown at 10 per cent and is already accounting for 32 per cent of the loan book, in tune with the Bank’s stated objective of becoming a retail banking powerhouse.

The net interest income registered a growth of 10 per cent and net interest margin improved from 2.53 per cent to 2.62 per cent. Other income, too, registered a growth of 57 per cent.

The gross NPA stood well contained at 4.93 per cent (vis-a-vis 4.96 per cent last year) and net NPA improved to 3.09 per cent as against 3.41 per cent a year ago.

SIB has also been able to meet the targeted levels of recovery/upgrades which has helped in containing the GNPA level, he added.