Backed by robust fee-based income, Bank of Baroda (BoB), has registered a 13.46% growth in its net profit at Rs 327.19 crore in Q2 2007-08 as against the mark of Rs 288.36 crore during the same period a year ago. The bank?s net profit jumped by 45.7% in the first half of the current fiscal to Rs 658 crore. However, there was a decline in CASA, which stands at 37.5% compared to 41% a year ago because of higher term deposit rates and buoyancy in the capital market.

Announcing the results on Wednesday, A K Khandelwal, chairman & managing director, BoB, said, ?Our efforts will be on to see that CASA was maintained at 40% by the end of the current fiscal.?

Total income moved up to Rs 3,333.83 crore from Rs 2,455.1 crore during the reporting period last year thus registering a growth of 35.8%. Other income, comprising commissions, recoveries from non-performing assets and fees, rose sharply by 41.12% to Rs 454.1 crore. Capital adequacy ratio was at 12.90% during the Q2 of the current fiscal and other income increased to Rs 454 crore from Rs 321.7 crore, registering a growth of 41.4%.

Total business was up by 24% to Rs 2,21,584 crore. While global business was up by 24%, there was surge of 20% in the bank?s domestic business during the period. Net NPAs were down to 0.55% during the second quarter as against the mark of 0.77% a year ago. Total advances were up by 27.2% to Rs 90,212 crore. Retail credit was up by 26.8% at Rs 4,465 crore.

While overall NIM improved to 2.95% from the mark of 2.92% during the previous year, domestic NIM improved to 3.2%.

Talking about the future plans of the bank, Khandelwal said, ?We want to maintain our ROAA at more than 1%, which currently stood at 0.95%?. Also, the bank wants to increase the number of branches upto 1700 by the fiscal year-end. While 5 overseas branches of the bank have already come into operation, the remaining five were likely to be opened by the year-end, said Khandelwal. He said that the recent CRR hike will add a burden of Rs 13 crore on his bank.

But he maintained that it was yet to be decided that if we will have to absorb it by our own or pass it on to the customers. Moreover, the bank was all set to announce its venture in insurance within a month?s time. On Malaysian venture, Khandelwal said that the capital requirement was huge and worth Rs 350 crore and hence all my partner banks will have to take a call.

BoB to raise Rs 3,000 crore

The state-run Bank of Baroda will be raising money in the range of Rs 2500-3000 crore in either upper tier I or tier II early next year. The idea is to meet Basel II norms and to ensure business growth of the bank, said the bank CMD, A K Khandelwal while announcing the Q2 results in Mumbai on Wednesday. Khandelwal said that both options ( ie Tier I & Tier II) are available before us, but we are yet to decide about it.