IDBI Bank Q1 loss widens to Rs 2,410 crore

New Delhi: State-owned IDBI Bank on Tuesday reported widening of loss to Rs 2,409.89 crore for the first quarter ended June 30, hurt by higher provisioning for bad loans.

The bank had posted a loss of Rs 853 crore in the April-June quarter of last fiscal, 2017-18. Its total provisioning for non performing assets (NPAs) or bad loans more than doubled to Rs 5,236.07 crore during the first quarter of 2018-19, from Rs 2,035.96 crore in the year-ago period.

The provision for bad loan alone was Rs 4,602.55 crore, as against Rs 1,873.21 crore. State-owned insurance behemoth LIC has expressed interest in taking up to 51 per cent stake in the debt ridden IDBI Bank.

The Union Cabinet has already given its approval to the proposal on August 1. The total income of the bank for the quarter under review also declined to Rs 6,402.50 crore, as against Rs 6,730.88 crore a year ago, IDBI said in a regulatory filing.

The bank's gross non-performing assets (NPAs) soared to Rs 57,806.84 crore, or 30.78 per cent of total advances, in the April-June quarter of 2018-19, from Rs 50,173.20 crore or 24.11 pe cent in the year-ago period. Net NPA too increased to 18.76 per cent, up from 15.8 per cent in the year-ago quarter.

The bank has made preferential allotment of equity shares for Rs 7,881 crore to the Government of India against the fund infusion made on March 27, 2018.

Finance Minister Piyush Goyal had said the government has already made a capital infusion of about Rs 16,000 crore in IDBI Bank and LIC will be getting a "strong organisation which has capacity not only to service its debts but also strengthen and grow from here onwards".

After the transaction, IDBI Bank would become a subsidiary of LIC and the insurer would have 51 per cent stake.

Currently, LIC holds 7.98 per cent stake in the debt-ridden public sector bank.