Allahabad Bank suffers 52% drop in Q2 net profit

AllahabadStock in Allahabad Bank slipped over 2 per cent in a flat market on Monday after the state-run lender reported a declined of more than 50 per cent in second quarter net profit year-on-year.

Allahabad Bank on Monday announced that its net profit slipped 52 per cent to Rs 234.20 crore in the three months through 30th of September, from Rs 488.02 crore in the corresponding period of last fiscal.

Quarter-on-quarter, net profit slipped from Rs 514.03 crore to Rs 234.20 crore.

Allahabad Bank's newly appointed chairperson and managing director, Shubhalakshmi Panse, said that the bank's profit dropped due to a combination of increase in non-performing assets (NPAs), write-offs, and decreasing returns from restructured assets.

Net NPA (non-performing assets) jumped from 0.69 per cent to 2.1 per cent at Rs 2,330.61 crore at the end of September. At the end of the last quarter, the bank's net NPA was recorded at 1.14 per cent.

Commenting on the quarterly figures, Panse added, "We will now focus on recovery and upgradation and aim to bring our gross NPA ratio to two per cent by March 2013."

During the quarter under review, the bank provided Rs 355 crore towards bad loans, against Rs 301.59 crore in the corresponding quarter of last year.

Shares in Allahabad Bank slipped more than 2 per cent to close at Rs 134.55 a piece on BSE.