Syndicate Bank Q3 net profit quadruples to Rs 434.82 crore as bad loans shrink

Syndicate Bank saw its net standalone profit rise over four times to Rs 434.82 crore in the quarter ended December 31, 2019 as its bad loans shrank. The public sector lender had registered a standalone profit of Rs 107.99 crore in the corresponding quarter last year.

Total interest earned by Syndicate Bank during the quarter under review was Rs 5,402.94 crore, marginally less than Rs 5,458.64 crore reported in the year ago period. Meanwhile, the interest expended during the December quarter this fiscal by Syndicate Bank stood at Rs 3,531.55 crore, as compared to Rs 3,840.16 crore in the same period last year. The net interest income, the difference between interest earned and interest expended, for the December quarter of the ongoing fiscal was pegged at Rs 1,871.39 crore.

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In terms of asset quality, the Syndicate Bank reported a decline in bad loans. Its gross bad loans as a percentage of gross advances declined to 11.33 percent in December quarter this year from 12.54 per cent in the year-ago period. In absolute terms, the gross NPAs declined to Rs 25,330.10 crore during Q3 FY20 from Rs 26,184.66 crore in Q3 FY19.

Net NPAs declined to 5.94 per cent during the quarter ended December 31, 2019 from 6.75 per cent in the same quarter last fiscal. Amount of net NPAs declined to Rs 12,514.32 crore during Q3 FY20, as opposed to Rs 13,211.17 crore in Q3 FY19.

Divergence in gross NPAs grew by Rs 5 crore, whereas that for net NPAs declined by Rs 1,179 crore. Divergence in provisioning grew by Rs 1,184 crore.

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The bank said it restructured 14,574 loans accounts worth Rs 465.84 crore held by MSMEs. This restructuring was in accordance to a RBI directive for granting relief to MSME borrowers either exempted or registered under the GST regime, the bank said in a filing to the bourses.

"The Board of Directors in its meeting held on September 13, 2019 has considered and accorded its "In principle approval" for amalgamation of Syndicate Bank into Canara Bank subject to all applicable approvals-and the process is in progress," Syndicate Bank said in its statement.

The Provision Coverage Ratio as on December 31, 2019 stood at 69.28 per cent, it further added.

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