UCO Bank Q4 Results: Net profit drops 9% YoY to Rs 526 crore on rise in operating expenses

Kolkata: Public sector lender UCO Bank on Monday reported a 9.5% year-on-year fall in net profit for the March quarter at Rs 526 crore, largely due to a rise in operating expenses.

The net profit was Rs 581 crore in the year-ago period. Uco’s net profit for the full year was also lower at Rs 1654 crore against Rs 1862 crore in the preceding fiscal.

The bank’s operating profit for the quarter was also lower at Rs 1273 crore against Rs 1357 crore earlier. The bank ‘s total provisions and contingencies were marginally higher at Rs 467 crore as compared with Rs 451 crore in the year ago quarter, even as provisions to cover bad loans were 44% lower at Rs 227 crore.

Operating expenses rose nearly 30% at Rs 2039 crore due to 46% rise in employee cost at Rs 1543 core.

The lender, however, has announced a dividend after a gap of nine years at 2.8% rate which comes to 28 paise per share of face value Rs 10.Uco’s net interest income was 11% higher at Rs 2188 crore. The bank’s gross advances rose by 15.62% year-on-year to Rs 1.87 lakh crore, while total deposits grew 5.5% to Rs 2.63 lakh crore.Its asset quality improved with gross non-performing assets ratio falling to 3.46% at the end of March from 4.78% a year back. Net NPA improved to 0.89% against 1.29% with provision coverage ratio rising to 95.38% from 94.50%.