KL Desk
Srinagar
All set to achieve its business target of Rs 100000 crore and a profit of 1000 crore by the end of this fiscal, J&K Bank Monday posted a net profit of Rs 289.40 crore for the quarter ended December 2012, which is up by 35.75 percent from Rs 213.19 crore earned during the corresponding quarter of the previous financial year.
The Bank announced its financial results for the third quarter following the approval of its Board of Directors in a meeting held in Jammu.
The total business of the Bank reached Rs 92,732 crore, which is up by 18.11 percent as compared to Rs 78,513 crore recorded during the corresponding period of the previous year. The Deposits grew by 17 per cent for Q3FY13 to stand at Rs 57,074.55 crore as against Rs 48,778.94 crore for Q3FY12. The advances have increased by 2019.92 per cent to Rs 35658 crore from Rs 29734 crore as recorded during the corresponding period of the previous year.
Commenting on the remarkable performance for the quarter, Mushtaq Ahmad, Chairman and CEO of Jammu & Kashmir Bank said, “We have continued with our growth momentum this quarter, as well. We have significantly improved our corporate, retail and treasury banking portfolios. Compared to last two quarters, we have brought down cost of deposits that facilitated us better advancing. This quarter’s net interest margin (NIM) has been the best in a last few quarters. All this is mainly because of deploying cost effective funds into lending operations, expanding corporate and treasury base across key markets of India and improving profitability per branch. This quarter, our net profit per branch has been significant.”
“The results are encouraging and we are determined to achieve our targets without losing focus of the implications and impact of our expansion policy in terms of infra-structure, HR, operational efficiency and other critical areas of the Bank,” he added.
The chairman said that during the last 12 months, business of bank has grown by more than 14000 crore which means Rs 1150 crore for every month. Besides bank has opened 100 new Business Units and 120 ATMs said Mushtaq.
“The total number of Business Units has reached 662 while as that of ATMs to 581 by the end of December, 2012,” he added.
The net profit for the nine months ended December 31, 2012 increased by 35.26 percent as it jumped to Rs 805.02 crore from Rs 595.13 crore registered during the corresponding period of the previous year.
The Bank’s operating profit increased by 34.37 percent YOY to Rs 434.77 crore from Rs 323.56 crore during the corresponding period of the previous year.
The Bank’s net interest income increased by 31.81 percent YOY to Rs 594.20 crore during the quarter from Rs 450.79 crore earned during the corresponding period of the previous year.
The asset quality of the bank has further improved as Gross NPAs declined to 1.61 per cent for the quarter as against 1.80 per cent for the corresponding quarter of the previous year. The Net NPA ratio of the Bank has also decreased to 0.14 per cent from 0.16 per cent recorded during same period of the previous year. This is the best in the industry.
The NPA Coverage ratio has increased to 94.21 percent from 94.07 percent as recorded during same period of the previous year.
The Earnings per Share jumped to Rs 59.70 which is up (YoY) by 35.77 per cent from Rs 43.97 recorded during the corresponding period of the previous year. Notably, the share price of the bank crossed Rs1400 mark in the last few trading sessions.
The Net Interest Margin (NIM) has reached 4.07 percent from 3.60 percent recorded for the corresponding period of the previous year. The Return on Assets (RoA) has increased to 1.87 percent from 1.60 percent as recorded for the corresponding period of the previous year.
Notably, the bank contributes in a major way to the priority sector credit in the state.