Allahabad Bank

This was the top loser on the BSE yesterday, down almost 5%. And this was thanks to the dismal performance for Q4FY13. Net profit for the quarter slipped 69% (YoY) at Rs.126 crore. There was an overall decline – NII fell 18% at Rs.1056 crore and NIM was down 70 bps (QoQ) at 2.3%. Apart from this fall, profit was also dented due to increased provisions which in turn was due to increasing NPAs. Gross NPA increased to 3.92% v/s 1.83% (YoY) and Net NPA went up even more sharply from 0.98% to 3.19%, indicating increased stress on asset quality. Total provisions rose 37% (YoY) at Rs.622 crore.

This apart, it restructured loans at the end of FY13 was to the tune of Rs.14,875 crore and of this, Rs.1970 came in during Q4. The main contributors to this were SEBs of Rajasthan, Haryana and UP and around Rs.1600 crore in Q4 came from nine accounts. Though the market has hammered down the stock, punishing it for the poor asset quality, the management looks ahead with optimism and is working towards bringing down the NPAs as it does not foresee any more stressed assets adding to the NPAs and with the bank also taking measures to recover monies, it hopes that Q4 would remain one of its worst and not a harbinger of things to come.