IOB Q4 loss widens to Rs 3,606 crore on rising bad loans

New Delhi: Public sector lender Indian Overseas Bank (IOB) witnessed widening of losses to Rs 3,606.73 crore in the March quarter due to higher provisioning for mounting bad loans.

The bank had registered a net loss of Rs 646.66 crore in the same quarter of previous fiscal.

The loss was mainly due to provisioning requirements including higher provisions on account of RBI guidelines on revised framework on Resolution of Stressed Assets, IOB said in a statement.

"Pursuant to the revised framework, the bank has classified the specific restructured accounts in accordance with extant Income Recognition and Asset Classification (IRAC) norms and made a provision of Rs 799.37 crore towards such accounts during the current quarter," it said.

Its total income rose to Rs 5,814.42 crore during the fourth quarter of 2017-18 from Rs 5,661.70 crore in same period a year-ago.

At the same time, interest income increased to Rs 4,828 crore as against Rs 4,630 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2017, registering a growth of 4.28 percent.

The bank's provisions for bad loans and contingencies increased sharply to nearly four-fold to Rs 6,774.55 crore during the March quarter from Rs 1,789.74 crore a year earlier.

Asset quality worsened with gross non-performing assets (NPAs) at 25.28 percent of gross advances at the end of March from 22.39 percent in the year-ago period.

Net NPAs were at 15.33 percent of net loans, up from 13.99 percent in the last quarter of 2016-17.

With regard to recovery, the bank said, it more than doubled to Rs 5,726 crore as against the recovery of Rs 2,729 crore during fourth quarter last fiscal.

The total slippage during the quarter stood at Rs 9,868 crore mainly on account of the impact of RBI guidelines on revised framework on Resolution of Stressed Assets.

Pursuant to the revised framework, the bank has classified the specific restructured accounts in accordance with extant IRAC norms.

For the full financial year 2017-18, the bank's net loss nearly doubled to Rs 6,299.49 crore from Rs 3,416.74 crore in 2016-17.

However, it said, operating profit during the fiscal was Rs 3628.08 crore as against Rs 3650.20 crore in the previous fiscal.

It total income remained lower at Rs 21,661.65 crore as against Rs 23,091.25 crore in the said period.

During the quarter ended March 2018, the bank has received an aggregate sum of Rs 4,694 crore as capital infusion by the government of India for 2017-18 as part of the recapitalisation plan for public sector banks for which the bank has allotted 203,82,11,029 equity shares of Rs 10 each for cash at issue price of Rs 23.03 per equity share (including premium of Rs 13.03 per equity share) .

Following infusion, government's shareholding has increased to 89.74 percent.

Shares of Indian Overseas Bank closed at Rs 16.25, down 2.40 percent apiece on BSE.