UCO Bank Q4 net jumps nearly fivefold to Rs 80 crore

The bank, in a stock exchange filing, informed that its board of directors approved the proposal for raising of equity capital aggregating to Rs 3,000 crore through various modes such as FPO, QIP and preferential issue, subject to necessary regulatory approvals.

State-run UCO Bank on Thursday reported a nearly five-fold year-on-year jump in its net profit to Rs 80.03 crore for the fourth quarter of FY21, from Rs 16.78 crore in the same period previous fiscal, as its operating profit grew 26% y-o-y.

The lender, which is still under the Reserve Bank of India’s Prompt Corrective Action framework, showed significant improvement in its asset quality during Q4 as its NPAs in absolute terms fell 41% y-o-y to Rs 1,1351.97 crore. The NPA ratio stood at 9.59%, which was 718 basis points down y-o-y. The gross NPA ratio decreased 21 bps on a quarter-on-quarter basis from 9.80%.

The bank, in a stock exchange filing, informed that its board of directors approved the proposal for raising of equity capital aggregating to Rs 3,000 crore through various modes such as FPO, QIP and preferential issue, subject to necessary regulatory approvals. The capital adequacy ratio stood at 13.74% (under Basel III), with the common equity tier-I ratio at 11.14% as on March 31.

Talking to FE, MD & CEO AK Goel attributed the sharp rise in the net profit to significant rise in operating profit, interest income and non-interest income.

Operating profit stood at Rs 1,532.54 crore, against Rs 1,216.60 crore for the same period a year ago. Net interest income rose 12.6% y-o-y to Rs 1,412.60 crore, while non-interest income saw an over 78% y-o-y growth to Rs 1,370.43 crore.

Total advances stood at Rs 118,404.81 crore as on March 31, 2021, against Rs 114,961.44 crore as on March 31, 2020, registering a growth of 3%. At the end of Q4FY21, net interest margin stood at 2.70, 12 bps up from 2.58% in same period of FY20.

The provision coverage ratio increased to 88.40% as on March 31, from 85.46% in the year-ago period. The provision for NPAs declined by 29.33% y-o-y at Rs 769.81 crore, against Rs 1,089.26 crore during Q4FY20.

During Q4, the lender’s fresh slippages stood at around Rs 2,449 crore. “Fresh slippages came primarily from retail, agriculture, MSME and large corporate,” Goel said.