City Union Bank Q3 profit up to Rs. 154.79 cr

Chennai: Private sector City Union Bank has recorded a 22.2% rise in its third quarter net profits for the period ending 31 December 2017 at Rs 154.79 crore "on strong growth in net interest income", a top official said. The Tamil Nadu-based bank had recorded net profits at Rs 126.62 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year. Declaring the financial results, the bank's managing director and chief executive officer (CEO), N. Kamakodi said the robust growth in advances over the last three quarters and "growing interest income enabled our net profit grow by 22 per cent".

"It (robust growth in advances) was supplemented by equally strong 19 per cent growth in net interest income," he told reporters. He said net profits grew to 17.6% to Rs439.87 crore for the April-December 2017 period from Rs373.89 crore registered during the year ago period. Responding to a query, he said the net interest income in the quarter ending 31 December 2017 grew by 18.9% to Rs365.14 crore from Rs306.98 crore registered during the year ago period. Total income for the third quarter ending 31 December 2017 period went up to Rs987.04 crore from Rs953.80 crore registered during corresponding period of last year.

Net interest income for the nine month period ending 31 December 2017 grew by 19.6% to Rs1,062.36 crore from Rs888.21 crore registered during the year ago period. For the 31 April-December, 2017 period, total income surged to Rs2,944.03 crore from Rs2,731.98 crore registered during the year ago period. He said gross non performing assets (NPA) stood at 3.30% as on 31 December 2017 while net NPA at 1.74%. Total deposits increased to Rs31,339 crore during the 31 April-December 2017 period from Rs29,986 crore registered during the year ago period.

Gross advances during the 31 April-December 2017 period went upto Rs26,089 crore from Rs21,801 crore registered during the corresponding period of last year. On the initiatives taken up by the bank, Kamakodi said a new FASTag facility for making payments at toll plazas would be unveiled in two weeks.

"The FASTag facility will be used for National Electronic Toll Collection by customers. Vehicle owners need to purchase the FASTag from our branches and travel through the dedicated FASTag lanes in toll plazas", he said. The individual need not be the bank's customer. He can collect the FASTag from the bank's branches and payment can be made, he said. On expansion of branches, he said that as of December 31, 2017 the bank has 561 branches and was expected to go up to 600 by end of March 31, 2018. The bank currently has 1,584 ATM network across the country, he said. Shares of the bank were trading at Rs 155.60 apiece, down by 0.19 per cent over previous close in BSE.