J-K Bank Q3 net profit up 35 pc to Rs 421 cr, 9-month net jumps 57 pc

According to the release, the bank announced the results today after its Board of Directors reviewed and approved the numbers for Q3 and 9 months for FY 2023-24 in a meeting held at the Bank's Zonal Office in Jammu.

"The bank's profit for 9 months has jumped 57 per cent in Q3 to Rs 1128.60 crore from Rs 721.05 crore clocked during nine months of the last financial year", it added.

Highlighting the bank's performance, the release noted that for the quarter, the Gross Non-Performing Assets (NPA) ratio of the bank has come down to 4.84 per cent i.e. 241 basis points (bps) YoY and 42 bps QoQ. The Net NPA ratio has also remarkably reduced by 125 bps YoY and is below 1 per cent at 0.83 per cent.

"Provision coverage ratio (PCR) of the bank has vastly improved by 678 bps annually to 91.61 per cent for the quarter ended December 2023 from 84.83 per cent recorded last year," it added.

Commenting upon the bank's asset quality, the MD and CEO Baldev Prakash said, "Asset quality continues to be our star metric and the numbers are fast converging towards the best in the industry. Backed purely by steady recoveries coupled with lower-to-negligible slippages, our GNPA has further reduced and we remain on track to meet our annual market guidance of GNPA around 4.5 per cent while our net NPA is already below 1 per cent. In terms of provisioning too we are very comfortably placed at PCR of above 90 per cent after a very long time."

As per the statement, on the back of recoveries, the Bank's Profit after Tax (PAT) for the Q3 increased by 35 per cent to Rs 421.08 crore while the 9-month net figure jumped 57 per cent to Rs 1128.60 crore.

The Net Interest Income (NII) has grown 11 per cent YoY for 9 months to Rs 3897.57 crore for the December quarter when compared to Rs 3495.73 crore recorded last year while increasing 2 per cent YoY for Q3 to Rs 1280.44 crore. The Bank's Operating Profit stood at Rs 550.54 crore, it added.

The Bank's NIM for the quarter stood at 3.83 per cent. The Return on Assets (RoA) increased by 23 bps YoY to 1.15 per cent for the October-December quarter with Yield on Advances improving by 44 bps to 9.78 per cent from 9.34 per cent recorded last year. Meanwhile, the Bank's steadily moderating cost-to-income ratio has come down further to 62.36 per cent for the third quarter.

In his remarks on operating numbers, MD and CEO Baldev Prakash said, "We have continued our growth momentum by delivering another set of quarterly numbers reflecting progress in bottom-line parameters. I am confident that we are well on course to meet our annual growth guidelines."

"Our bottom-line got the boost with major recoveries contributing to provision write-backs despite making additional provisions for NPAs at higher than RBI prescribed rates resulting in negative credit costs for the Quarter/9-month period", he added.

The Bank's net advances are up 16per cent YoY at Rs 89752.36 crore during the quarter reviewed while as the deposits have grown 9 per cent from Rs 117935.47 crore to Rs 128542.47 crore. The Bank has witnessed 19 per cent YoY growth in advances in its Rest-of-India (RoI) portfolio. The Bank's overall business has increased by 11.61 per cent to Rs 218650 crore from Rs 195574 crore recorded last year.

Commenting on growth numbers, CEO Prakash said, "Driven by the robust retail growth, especially in Housing (21per cent), SME (21 per cent and mostly driven by services) and Credit Card (24 per cent), the Bank's loan book has gone up 16 per cent. And led by Housing (24 per cent) and Car finance (36 per cent), our Rest-of-India advances portfolio has also grown by 19 per cent quite in line with our ROI focus during the December quarter."

"Our deposits witnessed a 9 per cent growth YoY against the industry average of 13 per cent while maintaining the industry-best CASA Ratio at above 50 per cent", he added.

With Tier 1 capital augmentation of over Rs 750 crore via Qualified Institutional Placement (QIP) - a capital-raising tool, the bank's Capital Adequacy Ratio (BASEL III) has reached 14.18 per cent as against 13.82 per cent recorded as of December 31, 2022.

Regarding the capital position, CEO Prakash stated, "The recent successful QIP - with an aggregate value of Rs750 crore has sufficiently strengthened our capital position while boosting our perception in the market because of the unprecedented and swift response from the market. We will use this CET1 capital of Rs 750 crore as growth capital to augment our capacity to fund our business plans."

"With the QIP, our net worth has crossed Rs 10000 crore for the first time and is currently above Rs 11000 crore", he added. (ANI)