SBI Q4 PAT beats street, asset quality improves

Moneycontrol Bureau

India's largest lender State Bank of India (SBI) on Friday reported a forecast beating net profit of Rs 4,050 crore for the fourth quarter (Jan-March) of FY12 as against Rs 21 crore a year ago, aided by higher interest income and lower provisioning for non-performing loans. Analysts on an average had expected profit at Rs 3,580 crore.

However, the exponential year-on-year jump in its net profit is not comparable. In Q4, FY11, the lower net profit was on account of higher provisions for loans and gratuity payments. It was the first quarter for the bank's existing chairman Pratip Chaudhuri, who had succeeded O P Bhat.

Net interest income (NII) or the difference between interest earned and paid out, jumped more than 45% y-o-y to Rs 11,704 crore. Other income rose 9% y-o-y to Rs 5264 crore.

During the quarter, provisions for non-performing assets fell 13% y-o-y to Rs 2,837 crore. The same fell by nearly 6% sequentially (Q4 vs Q3).

Net non-performing asset (NPA) ratio declined to 1.82% as against 2.22% in the October-December quarter while the gross NPA ratio fell from 4.61% to 4.44% during the same period.

SBI's standalone net profit climbed nearly 42% to Rs 11,707 crore for the year ended March 31, 2012. Its loan book expanded nearly 15% y-o-y to Rs 8.68 lakh crore. This was slighly below than the RBI's projection of 16% credit growth for the entire industry in FY12.

Deposits grew by 12% y-o-y to Rs 10.44 lakh crore as against 14% industry growth projected by RBI in FY12.

Capital adequacy ratio improved at 13.86% versus 11.98% year-on-year. Provision coverage ratio for the financial year 2011-12 stood at 68.10% versus 64.95% a year back.

During the year, the bank has allotted around 3.60 lakh shares of Rs 10 each at premium of Rs 2,182 per equity share worth Rs 7,900 crore to the government of India, its major stake holder.

saikat.das@network18online.com

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