The Hindu : Corporation Bank pays 30 p.c. interim

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jan 15, 2004

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Business

Corporation Bank pays 30 p.c. interim

By Our Special Correspondent

MUMBAI, JAN. 14. Corporation Bank today declared an interim dividend of 30 per cent and recorded a net profit of Rs. 384.64 crores for the half year ended December 31, 2003 as compared to Rs. 368.72 crores in the same period in the previous year.

Addressing a press conference here today, K. Cherian Varghese, Chairman and Managing Director, stated that the bank had adopted the 90-day non-performing asset (NPA) norm in December 2003 itself although these norms were required to be adopted by the banking industry as on March 31, 2004. Even after adopting 90-day norm, the bank's net NPA level was contained at Rs. 198.12 crores against the NPA level of Rs. 244 crores as on December 31, 2002. During the first three quarters of the current financial year, it could recover Rs. 68.86 crores in non-performing accounts.

The gross profit increased to Rs. 726.31 crore in December 2003 from Rs. 681.75 crores in December 2002. The net worth surpassed Rs. 2,750 crores and stood at Rs. 2,755 crores as on December 31, 2003. The interest spread of the bank increased to Rs. 718.07 crores from Rs. 602.87 crores. As a result, the net interest margin (NIM) improved to 3.75 per cent from 3.60 per cent during this period.

Mr. Varghese said the efforts to reduce the cost of deposit have yielded the desired results and the cost of deposit had come down to 5.53 per cent from 6.73 per cent. The board also approved the benchmark prime lending rate (PLR), Corporation Bank Advance Rate at 10.50 per cent per annum, a reduction of 100 basis points from the earlier 11.5 per cent.

On the business front, Mr. Varghese said despite stiff competition, the total business of the bank increased to Rs. 33,822 crores in December from Rs. 30,668 crores in December 2002. Aggregate deposits of the bank increased to Rs. 22,076 crores from Rs. 20,458 crores. Net advances increased to Rs. 11,746 crores from Rs. 10,210 crores. The bank continued its focus on retail lending and the portfolio under retail lending improved to Rs. 3,600 crores as on December 31, 2003 from Rs. 2,189 crores as on December 31, 2002.

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