The bank's board which met in Mumbai on Friday approved a dividend of Rs 1.60 per equity share of Rs 10 against Rs 1.50 declared in the previous year.

Dena Bank chairman Ramesh Mishra said the bank will realign its rural network by merging or even closing down some of the branches. At present, 8 per cent of Dena bank's branches are making losses.

Mishra pointed out that despite industrial slowdown, demand recession in certain industrial segments and subdued capital market, the bank has been able to reduce its net non-performing assets (NPA) from 8.28 per cent to 7.67 per cent. The bank has recovered Rs 214 crore during the year. The bank has made a provisioning worth Rs 315 crore on account of NPAs.

The growth in profit has taken a beating during the year due to full provisions for the proposed salary revision amounting Rs 24.03 crore for its 15,000-odd staff and reducedprofit from the investment from Rs 60 crore Rs 16 crore during the year, Mishra pointed out.

The year witnessed a number of policy changes resulting into lowering down the lending rats and higher effective interest rates on deposits brining in a large amount of competition and at the same time squeezed the spreads available to the banks. "The bank's spread has come down from 3.9 per cent to 3.4 per cent," Mishra said.

The bank has a capital adequacy ratio of 11.14 per cent as on March 31.

The total income of the bank went up from Rs 1,400.56 crore to Rs 1,645.54 crore showing an increase of 17.5 peer cent during the year.

The total non-interest income (excluding profit on sale of securities) of the bank increased by 10.7 per cent from Rs 123.82 crore to Rs 137.01 crore during the year.

The non-interest expenses to total income came down from 24.02 per cent to 22.94 per cent. The percentage of non-interest expenses to total expenses came down from 29.91 per cent to 26.42 per cent. The share of staffexpenses to total expenses declined from 21.72 per cent to 19.27 per cent.

The priority sector portfolio of the bank has increased by 26.2 per cent and reached a level of Rs 2,772 crore which account for 44.4 per cent of advances.

The investments which form a sizable chunk of bank's asset portfolio, increased sharply by 22.7 per cent from Rs 4,601 crore to Rs 5,647 crore.

The bank with a deposit base of Rs 11,795.35 crore has projected a growth of 25 per cent for the current year. The bank's advance portfolio which is currently pegged at Rs 6,395.7 crore is projected to grow at 18 per cent.

The bank has entered into an agreement with Union Bank of Switzerland AG and Commerzbank Interntaional to undertake gold business.

As a depositary participant the bank has opened 4000 accounts with National Securities Depositary Ltd with a custodial value of over Rs 100 crore and plans to extend the DO facility to major upcountry stock exchange and other important centres in a phased manner.