The Hindu : IOB first half profit jumps to Rs. 293 cr.

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Oct 22, 2003

Business

Business

IOB first half profit jumps to Rs. 293 cr.

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI OCT. 21. Indian Overseas Bank is targeting a 40-45 per cent growth in the net profit at over Rs. 600 crores during the current fiscal against Rs. 417 crores recorded in the previous fiscal.

Sharing mid-year results with media persons, the IOB Chairman, S. C. Gupta, said today, that the bank's business was slated to grow by 17-18 per cent to Rs. 65,000 crores by March 2004 as the first half of this fiscal it saw an 82 per cent jump in the net profit at Rs. 293.40 crores against Rs. 160.93 crores in April-September 2002.

The Chairman exuded confidence that the hike in capital after the recent public offer of Rs. 240 crores would help support the future asset expansion and strengthen profitability of the bank as the net profit in the second quarter of this fiscal was up by 75 per cent to Rs. 154.62 crores from Rs. 87.97 crores in July-September 2002.

This was so despite the hefty Rs. 195.45 crore provisions for various contingencies such as tax, VRS and NPAs.

The bank targets to reduce the NPA level below 3.75 per cent by this fiscal from 4.26 per cent till September 2003. NPAs came down from 5.23 per cent in the year-ago period, he asserted.

IOB's total business crossed Rs. 58,000 crores during the first half of this fiscal compared to Rs. 55,130 crores during the year-ago period. While deposits surged to Rs. 38,809 crores at the end of September 2003 from Rs. 36,699 crores, loan advances increased to Rs 19,804 crores from Rs. 18,431 crores. Also the bank's capital adequacy ratio improved to 11.38 per cent after the public offer from 10.48 per cent Mr. Gupta said.

While ruling out acquisitions, the IOB chief said the bank planned a limited purpose branch in Singapore.

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