New Delhi: State-owned Dena Bank on Friday reported widening of its net loss to Rs 1,225.42 crore in the March quarter on mounting bad loans and higher provisioning to cover them.
The net loss was Rs 575.26 crore in the January-March quarter of 2016-17. Sequentially, the loss widened from Rs 380.07 crore in December of 2017-18.
The bank reported loss on annual basis as well, the third year in a row due to ballooning non-performing assets (NPAs). For the entire fiscal, 2017-18, the bank has posted a net loss of Rs 1,923.15 crore.
In 2016-17, it had reported a net loss of Rs 863.63 crore; in 2015-16, it Rs 935.32 crore. It had clocked a net profit of Rs 265.48 crore in 2014-15. Dena Bank's total income in the fourth quarter of last fiscal also came down to Rs 2,390.68 crore from Rs 2,612.08 crore in the year-ago period. Its interest income was down at Rs 2,067.38 crore, as against Rs 2,297.11 crore.
Income for the full fiscal also fell to Rs 10,095.75 crore, as against Rs 11,433.07 crore in 2016-17, the bank said in a regulatory filing. The interest income of the bank also fell during the year to Rs 8,932.23 crore, from Rs 10,181.67 crore a year ago. The public sector lender said that its board of directors has not recommended any dividend for 2017-18.
Bank's asset quality has worsened with the gross NPAs hitting a high of 22.4 per cent of the gross advances as on March 31, 2018, from 16.27 per cent as of end-March 2017. In value terms, the gross NPAs or bad loans rose to Rs 16,361.44 crore from Rs 12,618.73 crore. Net NPAs were also up at 11.95 per cent (Rs 7,838.78 crore) from 10.66 per cent (Rs 7,735.12 crore).
Thus, the bank parked aside Rs 2,150.60 crore as provisioning for bad loans for the March quarter, as against Rs 878.18 crore in the year-ago period. For entire fiscal, the provisioning for bad assets rose to Rs 4,281.80 crore, as against Rs 2,457.75 crore. Provision coverage ratio stood at 60.20 per cent as on March 31, 2018. Dena Bank stock closed 0.54 per cent down at Rs 18.45 on BSE.
