Allahabad Bank, UCO Bank & Canara Bank post losses in Q4

Allahabad Bank’s net loss rises to INR 3,834.07 cr in Q4: State-run Allahabad Bank on Friday said it had posted a net loss of Rs 3,834.07 crore in the Q4 of the financial year 2018-19 (FY 19), widening from a net loss of Rs 3,509.63 crore in the year-ago period. The lender is planning to raise Rs 1,200 crore through Qualified Institutional Placement (QIP) this fiscal, the bank’s MD and CEO S.S. Mallikarjuna Rao said adding that they will have to raise around Rs 4,500 crore to bring down government holding to 75 per cent by October 2020 and look at various fund raising options including QIP for the same,”. The Kolkata headquartered lender, which recently came out of the Prompt Corrective Action (PCA) measure of RBI, is expecting to turn profitable by the first quarter of this fiscal. According to Shri Rao, it is hopeful of registering an operating profit of close to Rs 750-800 crore in the first quarter. The bank’s operating profit, in the quarter under review, stood at Rs 634.26 crore, up from Rs 122.9 crore in the corresponding period of the financial year 2017-18 (FY18).

UCO Bank posts net loss of INR 1,552 cr in Q4 : State-run UCO Bank has narrowed its net loss to Rs 1,552.02 crore in the fourth quarter of the financial year 2018-19 ended March, as against a net loss of Rs 2,134.36 crore for the same period a year ago, as per results announced on Tuesday, however  its net loss has increased sequentially, as it had posted a net loss of Rs 998.74 crore in the December quarter of the last fiscal. The bank, which is under the prompt corrective action (PCA) framework of the RBI, said it has posted operating profit of Rs 690.55 crore for the quarter, up year-on-year from Rs 112.42 crore during the corresponding period of 2017-18. The bank is aiming to back in profit and consequently come out of the PCA framework by the fourth quarter of the current fiscal. Talking to the media, MD and CEO A.K. Goel said he was “hopeful that the lender would turn to profit and come out of the PCA measure by the fourth quarter of this fiscal”. Gross non-performing assets (NPAs or bad loans) of the bank by end of 2018-19 decreased to Rs 29,888.33 crore, as against Rs 31,121.79 crore in the December quarter, while its net NPAs reduced to Rs 9,649.92 crore as on March 31, 2019, from Rs 11,755.61 crore in the December quarter.“The net NPA ratio is expected to come down to below 6 per cent, and the bank should return to profits by the last quarter of FY20,” Goel said.

Canara Bank posts INR 552-crore loss in Q4

State-run major Canara Bank on Friday reported a lower Rs 552-crore standalone net loss for the fourth quarter (January-April) of the fiscal 2018-19 as compared to Rs 4,860-crore net loss in the same period a year ago. The bank had reported Rs 318-crore standalone profit for the previous, or third quarter (October-December). In a regulatory filing on the BSE, the city-based bank said the standalone total income for the quarter (Q4) under review increased 21 per cent annually to Rs 14,000 crore, from Rs 11,555 crore in the same period a year ago, and 3.6 per cent sequentially from Rs 13,513 crore a quarter ago. The bank’s scrip of Rs 10 face value had gained Rs 8.25 per share to close at Rs 265.45 at the end of Friday’s trading on the BSE from Thursday’s closing rate of Rs 257.20 and opening price of Rs 259.