Net Profit Up 62% YoY On Lower Provisions

State Bank of India Ltd., the country’s largest lender, saw its October-December quarter profit rise on lower provisions.

Net profit for the quarter rose 62% year-on-year to Rs 8,432 crore. This compares with a Rs 8,259-crore estimate by analysts tracked by Bloomberg.

Net interest income for the quarter rose by 6.5% from a year ago to Rs 30,687 crore. Other income for the quarter fell 6.2% to Rs 8,673 crore crore.

Total provisions for the third quarter stood at Rs 6.974 crore, down 32.5% from a year ago. This was mainly because in December 2020, the bank had made provisions worth Rs 6,510 crore toward the 11th Bipartite Wage Settlement. Provisions against bad loans, however, increased by 35% year-on-year to Rs 3,096 crore during the third quarter.

Asset quality for the quarter improved as gross non-performing asset ratio fell by 40 basis points on a quarter-on-quarter to 4.5% as of December 31, 2021. Net NPA ratio too fell 18 basis points sequentially to 1.34%.

Slippages during the quarter stood at Rs 2,334 crore, as compared to Rs 237 crore in Q3 FY21. On a sequential basis though, slippages fell 44%.

Under the Reserve Bank of India’s two Covid restructuring schemes, SBI has restructured loans worth Rs 32,895 crore, which constituted 1.2% of its loan book.