Canara Bank net profit up 10 percent

Sunday, 27 April 2008, 19:30 IST
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Bangalore: State-run Canara Bank posted a net profit of 15.65 billion ($391 million) for 2007-08 against 14.21 billion of the previous fiscal, registering a 10 percent year-on-year (YoY) growth. Net profit for the fourth quarter (January-March) of the fiscal, however, dipped by eight percent to 4.64 billion from 5.05 billion of the same quarter of previous fiscal (2006-07), the bank said in a statement here Saturday. "An increase of 500 million in tax expense and 3.75 billion towards provisioning and contingencies during the fourth quarter impacted our bottom-line marginally," Canara Bank chairman M.B.N. Rao told reporters at a briefing on the bank's performance for fiscal 2008. Total income for last fiscal grew by 28 percent YoY to 164.14 billion from 128.16 billion. For the fourth quarter, the income grew by 14 percent YoY to 7.14 billion from 6.26 billion of the year-ago period. Though operating profit for fiscal 2008 increased marginally by 1.6 percent YoY to 29.59 billion from 29.12 billion, the same declined by 10.7 percent YoY to 9.39 billion in the last quarter from 10.52 billion. The bank's total expenditure for the fiscal also increased by 36 percent YoY to 135 billion from 99.03 billion year ago and by 28 percent in the fourth quarter to 35.63 billion from 27.85 billion. "We have shed preferential rate deposits by 24 percent to minimise the impact on our aggregate deposits, which increased by eight percent YoY (117 billion) to 1.54 trillion during the fiscal from 1.42 trillion," Rao said. "Similarly, we have also rebalanced advances portfolio by pruning low-yielding loans. As a result, net advances increased by nearly nine percent (87.32 billion) to 1.07 trillion in the last fiscal," he added. The bank's global business increased to 2.61 trillion in the fiscal from 2.41 trillion, registering 8.5 percent YoY growth. The bank has proposed a dividend of 80 percent for the fiscal against 70 percent for the previous fiscal. Earnings per share (EPS) improved to 38.17 from 34.65 year ago while book value rose to 202.33 from 197.83 year ago.
Source: IANS