UCO Bank Q1 net jumps 2.5-fold to ₹550.96 cr

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Kolkata

State-run lender UCO Bank on Monday reported around 2.5-fold year-on-year jump in its net profit to ₹550.96 crore for the first quarter this fiscal, backed by around 10 per cent y-o-y rise in its operating profit and around 46 per cent y-o-y fall in its provisions during the period.

The Kolkata-based bank had registered ₹223.48 crore net profit for the first quarter last fiscal.

The lender’s operating profit for the first quarter of FY25 grew to ₹1,321.23 crore from ₹1,202.34 crore for the corresponding period of FY24, it said in a stock exchange filing. During the period under review, provisions declined to ₹458.76 crore as against ₹855.69 crore in Q1FY24.

Net Interest Income (NII) for the quarter ended June 30, 2024 stood at ₹2,253.56 crore, registering a growth of around 12 per cent on a y-o-y basis as against ₹2,008.8 crore for the same period a year ago. Domestic Net Interest Margin (NIM) rose 26 basis points y-o-y to 3.29 per cent.

Declaring the results for Q1FY25, the bank’s Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Ashwani Kumar said during the period gross advances increased by 17.64 per cent, while total deposits rose by 7.39 per cent.

“We have given a guidance of 8-10 per cent growth in deposits and 12-14 per cent growth in advances. We continue to maintain that with this we will be able to achieve 75 per cent CD ratio. We don’t want to raise funds when we are not able to utilise or deploy them profitably,” Kumar said.

The MD said the lender was currently focusing on growing retail loans with main focus on home loan and vehicle loan.

The lender’s asset quality improved during Q1FY25. Gross NPA ratio fell 116 bps year-on-year to 3.32 per cent in the first quarter, whereas net NPA ratio fell 40 bps y-o-y to 0.98 per cent during the period. During the period fresh slippages stood at ₹479 crore as against ₹536 crore in the year-ago period.

Government’s stake in the public sector bank is likely to come down by 2-3 per cent in the next two quarters as the lender is planning to raise around ₹2,000 crore. Presently, the government’s stake in the bank stands at 95.39 per cent.