Punjab National Bank Q4 net surges 477% to ₹1,159 crore

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Punjab National Bank (PNB), the country’s second largest public sector bank, on Friday announced a 477 percent increase in standalone net profit for the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2023, at Rs.1,159 crore (Rs. 201 crore). In the December 2022 quarter, PNB recorded a net profit of Rs.629 crore.

Encouraged by the strong bottom line performance, PNB is now looking to post a full year profit of over Rs 4,000 crore in this financial year (2023-24), Atul Kumar Goel, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, said here on Friday.

He added that the bank’s most recent quarterly performance was its best in the past twelve quarters.

On a consolidated basis, PNB reported a net profit of Rs.1,741.11 crore in the fourth quarter ended 31st March 2023, as against a net profit of Rs.660 crore in the December 2022 quarter. This was also significantly higher than the net profit of Rs.245 crore in the quarter. March 2022.

higher rebound

Joel attributed the strong bottom line performance to an improvement in recovery from problem loans. Consistently, PNB has had a higher rebound quarter-over-quarter (2022-23), while slips have decreased in each of these periods.

Goel said the bank is confident of lowering its level of gross NPA as a percentage of advances to less than 7 percent this fiscal year and net NPA to less than 2 percentage points.

The Board of Directors has recommended a dividend of €0.65 per share (32.5%) with a nominal value of Rs.2 per share for the 2022-23 financial year. For the 2021-22 fiscal year, PNB declared a dividend of $0.64 per share.

For the entire financial year 2023-24, PNB pegged the recovery target at ₹22,000 crore. In the last financial year, the recovery target was ₹32,000 crore, of which the bank made about ₹29,000 crore.

credit growth

Goel said that PNB expects total credit growth during the current fiscal year to be between 12-13 percent. It was 12.68 percent in 2022-2023. Regarding deposit growth, Joel said he expects deposit growth of 10-11 percent. Joel noted: “I do not see a further rise in deposit prices.”

He also said that interest rates in the system have already peaked and after a while will start to fall.

Gul said that PNB will focus these public finances on intensifying its gold loan portfolio as well as strengthening credit to non-bank financial companies.

Asked about the potential impact of ECL provisions, Joel explained that this was only in the draft stage and one would have to wait until such a framework would be implemented by the regulator.