UCO Bank Q2 net up 4-fold on strong retail banking revenues

Moneycontrol Bureau

Public sector lender UCO Bank surprised the street with second quarter net profit rising a whopping 3.85 times year-on-year to Rs 400 crore, driven by strong retail banking operations and MAT credit, despite higher provisions.

Net interest income of the bank grew 55 percent to Rs 1,569.4 crore in three-month period ended September 2013 from Rs 1,013 crore in a year-ago quarter.

Revenues from its retail banking operations jumped 48.7 percent Y-o-Y to Rs 1,554 crore while corporate/wholesale banking operations segment fell 14 percent Y-o-Y to Rs 1,990.6 crore in the quarter gone by.

"The bank has recognised minimum alternate tax credit to the extent of Rs 90.09 crore for the quarter and Rs 237.51 crore for the period of six-month ended September 2013," according to its filing to the exchanges.

Gross non-performing advances (NPAs) climbed 26 basis points sequentially (up 44 bps on yearly basis) to 5.32 percent while  net NPAs declined 2 bps Q-o-Q (but up 19 bps Y-o-Y) to 3.13 percent during second quarter.

Provisions and contingencies rose 2.3 percent Q-o-Q (up 27 percent Y-o-Y) to Rs 758.7 crore in the quarter ended September 2013.

Other income more than halved to Rs 209.2 crore during second quarter from Rs 462 crore in first quarter FY14. Other income in a year ago period was Rs 213 crore.

During the same period, capital adequacy ratio (as per Basel III norms) declined sequentially to 12.31 percent from 12.80 percent.

At 11:59 hours IST, the stock was trading at Rs 75.65, up 6.55 percent amid hefty volumes on the BSE.