DCB Bank FY20 profit rises 4% to Rs 338 crore; bad loans surge

 Private sector lender DCB Bank on Saturday reported a 4 per cent year-on-year growth in its profit after tax (PAT) at Rs 338 crore for the full financial year ended March 31, 2020 (FY20), compared to Rs 325 crore in FY19. The profit was impacted by Rs 63 crore COVID-19 regulatory package provision, the lender said in a regulatory filing.

In FY20, the bank earned Net Interest Income (NII) of Rs 1,265 crore as against Rs 1,149 crore, a growth of 10 per cent. The Non Interest Income stood at Rs 391 crore versus Rs 350 crore in the same period last year delivering an increase of 12 per cent.

DCB Bank's operating profit jumped by 16 per cent to Rs 753 crore compared to Rs 647 crore in the previous fiscal.

For the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2020 (Q4 FY20), DCB Bank reported a 28.6 per cent Y-o-Y fall in net profit at Rs 68.76 crore, dented by rise in provisions due to coronavirus crisis.

Provisions and contingencies spiked 240 per cent to Rs 118.24 crore in March quarter, including Rs 63 crore related to COVID-19 regulatory package provisions from Rs 34 crore in the same period last year. The sequential rise in total provisions was 100.4 per cent.

Net interest income rose by 7.6 per cent Y-o-Y to Rs 323.7 crore, while net advances increased to Rs 25,345 crore from Rs 23,568 crore in March 2019.

On the asset front, DCB Bank's asset quality declined during FY20, with gross non-performing assets (NPAs) ratio rising to 2.46 per cent versus 1.84 per cent in the year-ago period. Net NPA jumped at 1.16 per cent as compared to 0.65 per cent in FY19.

"The NPA for the month of March 2020 was approximately Rs 42.7 crore (Mortgages Rs 26.1 crore, Commercial Vehicle (CV) Rs 6.5 crore, SME Rs 4 crore, Corporate Rs 3.4 crore). The bank adopted a conservative approach and did not take the benefit of COVID-19 on the entire March 2020 slippage. Also, due to disruptions from March 15, 2020 an estimated Rs 15 crore could not be upgraded / recovered across various loan portfolio," the bank said in the exchange filing.

As on March 31, 2020, the bank's deposits grew by 7 per cent to Rs 30,370 crore, with retail CASA and retail term deposits providing a stable resource base to the bank.

On COVID-19, the bank said the economic activity has been significantly affected by the lockdown step taken by the government to contain the spread of coronavirus. "Once lockdown restrictions are eased, loan demand may pick-up slowly in 3 to 6 months (depending upon type of business/industry). Smaller locations may recover sooner than metropolitan/large cities. The recovery may not be smooth and there may be further disruptions in the coming months," it said.

The bank intends to re-look at all its credit policies in light of COVID-19, DCB Bank said.

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