SBI Q3 net up 17% in Q3

State Bank of India has posted a 16.82 per cent rise in net profit at Rs 919.44 crore for the third quarter ended December 31, 2003, compare...

State Bank of India has posted a 16.82 per cent rise in net profit at Rs 919.44 crore for the third quarter ended December 31, 2003, compared to Rs 787.05 in the same period the previous fiscal. Total income in the period under review has decreased to Rs 8,559.34 crore from Rs 9,066.92 crore posted in Q3 of last fiscal, SBI chairman A.K. Purwar said.

Dabhol loans push up SBI bad assets

MUMBAI: Even as the government and the RBI are making efforts to bring down the menace of bad loans, SBI’s non-performing assets (NPAs) have increased by over Rs 500 crore in the last nine months. From Rs 13,506 crore on March 31, 2003, gross NPAs of the country’s largest bank shot up to Rs 13,846 crore on December 31, 2003. “This is largely due to the Dabhol Phase II, which was declared non-performing in December,” informed an SBI official. Once touted as the largest foreign direct investment in India, the DPC project has now become the largest loan default — around Rs 10,000 crore — in the Indian banking history. The SBI NPA figure is expected to rise further in March 2004, when the 90-day delinquency norm comes into place. ‘‘At present, the bank’s net NPAs are 2.88 per cent of its advances. It should be around 3.2 to 3.33 per cent when the new norm comes into place,’’ said SBI chairman A. K. Purwar.

For the first nine months of the fiscal, net profit has gone up to Rs 2,808.54 crore (Rs 2,367.45 crore in corresponding period of last year) while total income rose to Rs 28,351.56 crore (Rs 26,600.21 crore), he added. The growth in net profit was achieved due to increased operating profit at Rs 7,188.14 crore (Rs 5,267.4 crore), despite larger provisions made during the nine-month period, he said, adding, ‘‘We expect to end the fiscal with a 20 per cent increase in net profit’’.