Allahabad Bank posts Q1 net loss of Rs 1,944 cr as bad loan provisions soar; shares fall 5.62%

New Delhi: State-owned Allahabad Bank on Tuesday reported a net loss of Rs 1,944.37 crore in the first quarter ended June due to higher provisioning for bad loans. The bank had registered a net profit of Rs 28.84 crore in the corresponding April-June period of 2017-18. Total income of the bank also fell to Rs 4,794.04 crore as against Rs 4,968.57 crore mainly owing to fall in income from other sources. Interest income, however, rose to Rs 4,599.50 crore during April-June as against Rs 4,147.85 crore in the same period a year ago, the bank said in a regulatory filing. [caption id=“attachment_4469065” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. Reuters.[/caption] Bank’s gross bad loans worsened by the end of June quarter with gross non-performing assets (NPAs) hitting a high of 15.97 percent of the gross advances as against 13.85 percent as on 30 June, 2017. In value terms, the gross NPAs stood at Rs 25,067.55 crore by end-June 2018, up from Rs 21,032.42 crore in the year-ago period. Net NPA ratio, however, improved to 7.32 percent (Rs 10,410.30 crore) as against 8.96 percent (Rs 12,868.66 crore). Thus the provisioning for bad loans was to be raised to Rs 2,590.37 crore for June quarter from an allocation of Rs 1,686.70 crore for April-June 2017. As per RBI directions of June last year in respect of nine accounts for initiating insolvency process, the bank said it made fresh provisions of Rs 532.42 crore in June quarter of this fiscal. On further regulatory directions of August 2017, the bank made additional provisions of Rs 657.54 crore in respect of accounts under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, it said in the filing. The non-performing loan provision coverage ratio of the bank is 67.81 percent by end-June, Allahabad Bank said. Stock of the bank fell 5.62 percent to trade at Rs 40.30 on BSE.