Team News Riveting
State Bank of India (SBI), India’s largest public sector lender, today reported a record net profit of Rs 6451 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2021.
The increase is of 80.15 per cent year-on-year as the fourth quarter profit is a big jump from Rs 3,581 crore in the year-earlier quarter. The feat was powered by lower provisions for bad loans.
The central board of the bank has also declared a dividend of Rs. 4.00 per equity share for the financial year ended 31st March, 2021, its first payout since May 2017, when it had rewarded shareholders with Rs 2.6 per share. The date of payment of dividend is fixed on June 18, 2021, the bank said.
The SBI had reportedly received a windfall of nearly 40 billion rupees as part of dues owed by a bankrupt steelmaker.
Net interest income, the difference between interest earned and interest expended, grew by 18.9 percent year-on-year to Rs 27,067 crore in Q4FY21, with loan growth at 5 percent YoY, which was largely in line estimates.
Provisions and contingencies at Rs 11,051 crore (which included loan loss provisions of Rs 9,914.23 crore) in January-March 2021 quarter fell 18.1 percent year-on-year, but still at elevated levels. Sequentially the same increased 6.9 percent.
Asset quality improved significantly with the gross non-performing assets (NPA) as a percentage of gross advances falling 46 bps sequentially to 4.98 percent in the quarter ended March 2021. The net NPA in same period declined 31 bps QoQ to 1.50 percent.
Provisions for bad loans slid 16.6 per cent to Rs 9914 crore.
The standalone profit in the COVID year, FY21, at Rs 20,410.47 crore increased substantially by 40.9 percent over previous year, driven by pre-provision operating profit and lower tax cost. Net interest income grew by 12.9 percent to Rs 1,10,740 crore compared to previous year.
