Allahabad Bank betters Q3 show

New Delhi/Kolkata: State-owned Allahabad Bank Wednesday reported narrowed net loss at Rs 732.81 crore for third quarter ended December of the current financial year due to reduction in bad loan provisions. The bank had posted a net loss of Rs 1,263.79 crore in the same period of the previous fiscal.

Total income was nearly flat at Rs 4,756.88 crore for December quarter of 2018-19, as against Rs 4,755.33 crore in the same period of 2017-18, Allahabad Bank said in a regulatory filing.

On the asset front, the bank witnessed rise in its gross non-performing assets (NPAs) at 17.81 per cent of the gross advances as at December-end 2018, as against 14.38 per cent by December 2017.

In value terms, gross NPAs or bad loans stood at Rs 28,218.79 crore, higher than Rs 23,260.81 crore a year ago. However, the net NPAs were brought down to 7.70 per cent (Rs 10,865.26 crore) from 8.97 per cent (Rs 13,646.52 crore).

The provisions for bad loans also reduced to Rs 1,900 crore for the reported quarter, as against Rs 2,044.23 crore a year ago. The overall provisions and contingencies were at Rs 1,495.34 crore, down from Rs 2,413.46 crore.

For accounts under provisions of Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), the bank is holding provision of Rs 4,887.17 crore (75 per cent of total outstanding as on December 31, 2018, it said. The non-performing loan provision coverage ratio of the bank stood at 69.64 per cent by end of December 2018.

Stock of Allahabad Bank closed at Rs 42.35 on BSE, down 0.94 per cent from previous close. Talking to reporters in Kolkata on Wednesday, MD and CEO of Allahabad Bank S S Mallikarjuna Rao said the bank would strive to come out of the Prompt Corrective Action (PCA) threshold by June 2019.

An appeal would also be made to the government for infusion of capital into the bank, Rao said.

He said the bank was planning to wind up its Hong Kong operations and transfer the NPAs on the Indian entity's books.