Allahabad Bank back in black with `111 crore Q4 net profit

Public sector Allahabad Bank swung into black, registering a net profit of Rs 111.16 crore during the last quarter ended March 2017 as provisions for bad loans came down. The bank had posted a net loss of Rs 581.13 crore during the corresponding quarter of preceding fiscal due to RBI's prudential norms on asset classification requiring banks to provide for a higher coverage for bad loans.

Total income during the January-March quarter of 2016-17 was slightly up at Rs 5,105.07 crore against Rs 5,051.38 crore in the same period of year-ago fiscal.

Bank's provisioning to cover bad assets for the quarter under review came down to Rs 1,489.88 crore against Rs 2,979.74 crore a year ago, it said in a regulatory filing.

However, asset quality deteriorated further with gross non-performing assets (NPAs) rising to 13.09 per cent of gross loans as at the end of March 2017 from 9.76 per cent at the end of March 2016. Net NPAs as a percentage of net loans widened to 8.92 per cent from 6.76 per cent. For entire fiscal 2016-17, the bank trimmed its net losses to Rs 313.51 crore against Rs 743.31 crore in 2015-16.

Full year income was marginally down at Rs 20,304.72 crore from Rs 20,795.07 crore a year ago. The Kolkata-based lender is now headed by former Punjab National Bank MD and CEO Usha Ananthasubramanian post retirement of Rakesh Sethi.