PNB profit more than doubles to Rs 4,306 crore in Q2

New Delhi: Punjab National Bank (PNB) on Monday reported more than two-fold jump in its profit at Rs 4,306 crore in the second quarter ended September 2024 on the back of improvement in interest income and robust recovery.

The state-owned lender had earned a net profit of Rs 1,756 crore in the same quarter in the previous financial year.

Total income increased to Rs 34,447 crore during the quarter under review against Rs 29,383 crore in the same quarter last year, PNB said in a regulatory filing.

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The bank reported an interest income of Rs 29,875 crore during the quarter, higher than Rs 26,355 crore in the same period a year ago.

Announcing the quarterly numbers, PNB managing director Atul Kumar Goel said, the combination of factors including growth improvement in business, net interest income recovery and containment in slippages led to 145 percent jump in profit.

Net Interest Income (NII) increased to Rs 10,517 crore from Rs 9,923 crore in Q2 FY24, showing an improvement of 5.99 percent.

The bank made a recovery of Rs 4,000 crore during the second quarter, he said, adding, Rs 18,000 crore recovery is expected in the entire FY25.

Global Net Interest Margin (NIM) stands at 2.99 percent in H1 FY25 and 2.92 percent in Q2 FY25.

On the NIM outlook, Goel said the bank will maintain the target of 2.9-3 percent during the entire fiscal.

Credit cost improved by 123 basis points to 0.08 percent in Q2 FY25 from 1.31 percent in Q2 FY24.

Return on assets (ROA) for the quarter stood at 1.02 percent while in first half it was 0.92 percent.

The bank aims to maintain ROA of 0.9 percent to 1 percent during this fiscal, he said.

As regards asset quality, the bank witnessed improvement with gross Non-Performing Assets (NPAs) declining to 4.48 percent of the gross loans by the end of September 2024 from 6.96 percent a year ago.

Similarly, net NPAs or bad loans moderated to 0.46 percent from 1.47 percent at the end of the second quarter of the previous fiscal.

The Provisioning Coverage Ratio (including Technical Written off accounts) as at September 30, 2024 rose to 96.67 percent from 91.91 percent at the end of same quarter a year ago.

On a consolidated basis, the bank's profit more than doubled to Rs 4,714 crore as against Rs 1,990 crore in Q2FY24.

During the quarter, the bank made floating provision of Rs 350 crore in line with the board approved policy, it said.

As on September 30, it said, the bank is holding floating provision of Rs 500 crore.

As far as global business is concerned, it grew by 11.93 percent to Rs 25,20,246 crore from Rs 22,51,631 crore as on September 2023.

Global deposits registered a growth of 11.33 percent to Rs 14,58,342 crore from Rs 13,09,910 crore at the end of second quarter of last fiscal.

With regards to advances, it said, the bank's loan grew by 12.76 percent to Rs 10,61,904 crore as on September 2024 from Rs 9,41,721 crore as on September 2023.

Goel said the bank expects a credit growth of 11-12 percent while deposit 9-10 percent during the current fiscal.

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