SBI profit rises 36%
The country?s largest lender has maintained the strong earnings trend being witnessed by banks in the second quarter. State Bank of India on Saturday posted a 36.04% growth in net profit at Rs 1,611.42 over Rs 1,184 crore recorded in the same quarter of the previous year. Net profit for the first half was at Rs 3,037.23 crore showing a growth of 53.16%.
The performance beats estimates of the analysts, who were expecting Rs 1,500 crore net earnings at best. Already, the market capitalisation of the bank has crossed the Rs 1,00,000-crore mark during the current quarter.
Chairman OP Bhatt said the capital raising plans were in an advanced stage. The bank has plans of raising capital by a follow-on public issue later this year.
Overall, the bank saw market share in deposits and advances pegged at 15.38% and 15.35%, respectively. There was a decline in the net NPA ratio from 1.67% to 1.637%.
SBI?s plan to take an proactive stance in the lending market is seen as the reason behind this growth. So while SBI?s deposits grew 23.31% in the current quarter over the pervious year, gross advances grew 26.21%. Retail advances constituted 24.82% of its domestic advances while housing loans constituted 52.47% of retail advances.
Bhatt said his bank would roll out a slew of initiatives to get most from their human resources.