Record Profit For SBI In Straight Qtr

The country’s largest bank reported its highest ever quarterly net profit of ₹14,205 crore, beating market estimates, from ₹8,431 crore in the corresponding quarter last year.

Net interest income (NII), which is the difference between interest earned and spent, rose 24% to ₹38,068 crore as on 31 December 2022 from ₹30,687 crore a year ago.

Net interest margins improved to 3.5% as at December end from 3.32% in the previous quarter.

Loan book grew 17.6% y-o-y in the quarter, with domestic advances growing 17%. Domestic advances growth was driven by personal loans and corporate loans, with both seeing an 18% growth each. The bank’s total deposits increased to ₹42 trillion from to ₹40 trillion y-o-y.

The management had given a guidance of 14-15% y-o-y growth in loan book for fiscal year 2023. “Credit growth is broad based. But we expect the pace to continue next year also. But some moderation may happen," said Dinesh Khara, chairman, SBI.

“We are hopeful to see good traction in infrastructure sector like roads, ports, iron and steel. We expect strong demand from consumer sector like white goods. We also see opportunity to finance aviation. Data centre, EVs and batteries are other sectors," he added.

Bank’s asset quality improved with gross non-performing assets declined to ₹98,346 crore as at December end from ₹1.2 trillion during the corresponding period a year ago. Gross NPA as a percentage of total assets fell to 3.14% as at December end from 3.52% in the previous quarter and 4.5% a year ago.

Net NPA ratio declined to 0.77% as at December end from 1.34% a year ago.

The public-sector lender saw provisions for the quarter drop by more than 17% year on year to ₹5,761 crore. Of this, provision for non-performing assets was ₹1,586.5 crore compared with ₹3,096 crore a year ago.

The bank’s fee income grew 3% year on year to ₹5,928 crore at the end of December 2022 as compared to ₹5,747 crore a year ago. The bank’s income from investment rose to ₹2,938 crore as at December end from ₹457 crore in the previous quarter.

The management also said that the bank remains well capitalised and will use the internal accruals to meet the business growth requirements. As on 31 December the bank’s capital adequacy stood at 13.27% compared to 13.51% in the previous quarter.