PNB Q3 net profit rises 7.12% to Rs 246.51 crore, asset quality improves

State-owned lender Punjab National Bank (PNB) on Tuesday reported a 7.12 per cent growth in its net profit at Rs 246.51 crore for the third qurter ended December 31, 2019, helped by the rise in net interest income (NII) and imporvement in asset quality.

"The country's fourth largest lender posted a net profit of Rs 230.11 crore in the same quarter last year," PNB said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange.

The bank's total income, fell by 2.64 per cent to Rs 14,854.24 crore for the quarter under review from Rs 15,257.5 crore in the year-ago quarter.

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PNB managing director and CEO Sunil Mehta said the company's financial numbers are back in black.

"We have honoured all our commitments. Our bank, as on date, has provided all for that incident (Nirav Modi fraud). We suffered because of the one-off incident which has now been absorbed by the bank," Mehta said

On PNB's asset quality, the bank said, its gross non-performing assets (NPAs) as a percentage to total advances rose to 16.33 per cent from 12.11 per cent in the year-ago period.

Its net NPAs, however, came down to 8.22 per cent from 8.90 per cent at the end of December 2017, PNB said in a BSE filing.

Total provisions, excluding for income tax, made during the third quarter of the current financial year were Rs 2,753.84 crore as against Rs 4,466.68 crore in the year-ago period.

Out of which, provisioning for bad loans stood at Rs 2,565.77 crore as against Rs 2,996.42 crore reported during the third quarter of the previous fiscal.

Shares of PNB were trading 1.98 per cent higher at Rs 74.60 apiece on BSE.