By IANS,
Bangalore : State-run Canara Bank has posted a net profit of Rs. 14.21 billion for fiscal 2006-07, it was announced here Wednesday.
The bank registered a marginal growth of 5.8 percent over 2005-06 when it was Rs. 13.43 billion.
Even for the fourth quarter (January-March) of the 2007 fiscal, the bank posted a net profit of Rs. 5.05 billion, an increase of 2.35 percent over the corresponding period of the previous fiscal at Rs. 4.93 billion.
Announcing the financial results, bank chairman M.B.N. Rao told reporters here the net profit for the entire fiscal was the highest ever despite making a total provision of Rs. 14.92 billion as per the central bank’s (RBI) regulations.
“The operating profit, however, registered 14.22 percent year-on-year (YoY) growth at Rs. 29.12 billion in spite of slackness in treasury and the impact of an uptrend in interest rates on cost of resources. Similarly, the net interest income grew by 12.43 percent YoY,” Rao said.
The bank has proposed a dividend of 70 percent for fiscal 2007 amounting to Rs. 2.87 billion as against Rs. 2.71 billion in the previous fiscal.
“In view of the rising interest rates and the bank’s PLR (prime lending rate) going up to 13.25 percent, we are in the process of re-pricing the interest rates on housing loans, which accounted for 37.6 percent of the retail portfolio,” Rao said.