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PNB Q1 net profits zoom 28.2% TO 322.67 cr

Shri S.S. Kohli, Chairman & Managing Director of the Punjab National Bank disclosed that as per the reviewed quarterly results, the Net profit of the bank for first quarter of FY 2004-05 amounted to Rs 322.67 crore as compared to Rs 251.76 crore in the corresponding period of last year, recording a year-on-year (y-o-y) growth of 28.2% as compared to a growth of 24.5% in the comparable period last year. Provisions were higher at Rs 478 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2004 as compared to Rs 343 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2003.

Operating Profit of the bank for the quarter ended June 2004 touched Rs 800.99 crore as compared to Rs 594.74 crore in the previous year, registering a growth of 34.7%.

Bank's Capital and Reserves at the end of June 2004 increased to Rs 5332 crore compared to Rs 4283 crore in June 2003, registering a growth of 24.5%.

Capital to Risk Asset Ratio (CRAR) at the end of June 2004 at 12.74% was higher than 12.14% at the end of June 2003.

Total Business stood at Rs 1,38,528 crore at end June 2004 as compared to Rs 1,10,863 crore at end June 2003, registering a y-o-y growth of 25%.

Total deposits of the Bank at the end of June 2004 amounted to Rs 91203 crore as compared to Rs 72786 crore in June 2003, registering a growth of 25.3% on y-o-y basis. Low cost deposits continued to be the thrust area of the bank and constituted 42.8% of total deposits.

Advances at the end of June 2004 amounted to Rs 47324 crore as compared to Rs 38077 crore at the end of June 2003, registering a y-o-y growth of 24.3%. The bank is having various lending schemes for housing, traders, professionals, army officers, government/PSU employees, pensioners, etc.

Mr. Kohli also informed that the outstanding retail advances grew by 30% to touch Rs 8943 crore as at the end of June 2004. The major focus of retail lending was on housing and traders' finance segments. The "Hub & Spokes Model" introduced to facilitate centralized processing of housing loans has been extended to 20 centres.

Under retail loan schemes, the housing loan segment showed an appreciable growth of 36% to reach a level of Rs 3908 crore as at June 30, 2004 from Rs 2876 crore in the same period of last year. Apart from this, the bank continued its focus on other retail segments like traders, education loans, loans to Doctors and lease rentals. Considering the strong competition in this segment, PNB lays emphasis on offering customized solutions to corporates and institutions with due emphasis on providing quality service. Education loans grew by 33% while finance to Traders' segment rose by 30%.

Priority sector credit in June 2004 amounted to Rs 23,171 crore, representing 48.3% of net bank credit and was above the national goal of 40%. It registered a 22.7% y-o-y growth. The y-o-y increase in agricultural advances in June 2004 was Rs 2233 crore or 32.2%.

The bank's advances to the Small Scale sector at the end of June 2004 stood at Rs 5272 crore, recording a y-o-y growth of 12.4%. The bank issued 26,771 Kisan Credit Cards during Apr-May 2004, taking the total number of KCCs issued to 12.29 lakh by the end of May 2004.

The Bank has achieved Export turnover of Rs 5395 crore during the first quarter of the year 2004-05, recording a growth of 38.2%. The import turnover grew by 62.6% to Rs 4459 crore (including bullion import). The Bank has been awarded the Niryat Bandhu Award from Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) for 2002-03, the third year in succession.

Net interest income of the bank increased by 13.12% on y-o-y basis to reach Rs 936 crore for the first quarter ended June 2004 as compared to Rs 827 crore in June 2003.

Gross income of the bank increased to Rs 2495 crore from Rs 2174 crore, registering a y-o-y growth of 14.7%. Interest expenses increased from Rs 1064 crore in June 2003 to Rs 1109 crore in June 2004, recording a y-o-y growth of 4.2%. Operating expenses rose by 13.5% on y-o-y basis from Rs 515 crore in June 2003 to Rs 584 crore in June 2004.

Staff productivity measured in terms of business per employee increased to Rs 2.34 crore at the end of June 2004 compared to Rs 1.87 crore in the previous year.

The bank has the largest network of branches amongst nationalised banks with 4475 offices including 447 extension counters at the end of June 2004.

Gross NPAs of the bank declined from Rs 5178 crore in June 2003 to Rs 4620 crore in June 2004. Net NPAs of the bank declined from Rs 1525 crore in June 2003 to Rs 253 crore in June 2004. Net NPAs as percent to net advances have declined from 4.10% in June 2003 to 0.55% in June 2004.

As a part of technological initiatives, the bank has achieved 100% computerisation of branches capturing nearly 98% of the total business. The bank has set up 448 ATMs, of which 397 are connected with the switch. The bank has issued a total of 6.7 lac ATM-cum-Debit cards. Besides, the Bank has made available around 2100 ATMs in 205 cities under the MITR facility and the cardholder base has already crossed the 5 million mark.

Mr. Kohli further added that the Centralized Banking Solutions (CBS), an ambitious project of the bank aimed at interconnectivity of branches, has been implemented in 634 service outlets at over 134 centres to harness the advantages of Anywhere-Anytime banking. The Bank is offering internet services to CBS customers and already around 13300 customers are using this facility. Cash Management Services have been operationalized in 102 centres in the country and Rs 1609 crore have been transacted through the system during the first quarter of the current year.

The Bank would be shortly launching Corporate Internet Banking services offering facilities like trade finance, on-line opening of letters of credit, bill lodgement and fund management. This will be an important service, considering that more and more corporates are preferring to handle their finances on-line. The bank is part of the Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) system and the user interface between CBS branches and RTGS is expected to be ready shortly. This will facilitate inter-bank transactions and will lead to building a robust payment and settlement system.

The bank has also launched a Customer Relationship Centre (Call Centre) recently. This Call Centre is functioning on a 3 shift basis and is offering various facilities like balance enquiry, status of cheques deposited and paid, enquiries related to ATM/Debit card etc. to the customers.

PNB has also launched a Joint Venture company, the Principal PNB Mutual Fund and is marketing the mutual fund products of the Principal group. PNB has been ranked at 313rd position amongst the top 1000 global banks, by prestigious international publication, The Banker. PNB's ranking has shown a remarkable improvement from 499th position in 2002 to 395th position in 2003 and further to 313rd position in 2004. This reflects consistent improvement of the bank's overall performance.

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