Bank of Maharashtra's Q4 standalone net loss narrows to Rs 113 cr; NPAs stand at Rs 18,433 cr

New Delhi: Bank of Maharashtra (BoM) on Friday reported narrowing of standalone net loss to Rs 113.51 crore for the quarter ended 31 March. The public sector bank had registered a net loss of Rs 455.45 crore in the January-March quarter of 2016-17. In December quarter 2017-18, the bank’s loss stood at Rs 596.70 crore, the bank said in a regulatory filing. The Pune-headquartered lender is sitting on a huge pile of bad loans with gross non-performing assets (NPAs) at 19.48 percent of the gross advances at the end of March 2018. Gross NPAs were 16.93 percent by the end of March 2017. In absolute value, gross NPAs as on 31 March, 2018 were Rs 18,433.23 crore as against Rs 17,188.71 crore earlier. [caption id=“attachment_3361084” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. Courtesy: YouTube[/caption] Net NPAs or bad loans were 11.24 percent of the net advances by the end of 2017-18 (Rs 9,641.19 crore), slightly down from 11.76 percent (Rs 11,229.56 crore) by the end of 2016-17. The bank’s provisions for bad loans were raised to Rs 1,994.61 crore for the reported quarter from Rs 1,742.76 crore over January-March 2016-17. Total income during the quarter also slipped to Rs 3,094.46 crore from Rs 3,354.80 crore in year-ago period. For the full year 2017-18, there was a net loss of Rs 1,145.65 crore (standalone) as compared to a loss of Rs 1,372.51 crore in 2016-17. Income during the year fell to Rs 12,602.47 crore from Rs 13,570.03 crore in the preceding year. On the consolidated basis, full-year net loss stood a Rs 1,112.03 crore as against Rs 1,356.09 crore in 2016-17. Income in 2017-18 was at Rs 12,636.15 crore, down from Rs 13,586.79 crore earlier. During 2017-18, loans and advances amounting to Rs 961.80 crore (Rs 770.22 crore during the quarter) have been classified as fraud in terms of RBI norms and the entire amount is provided for, BoM said. Meanwhile, the bank’s board has recommended no dividend for 2017-18. Besides, the board has approved to raise Rs 3,000 crore by way of equity through qualified institutional placement, further public offer, rights issue. Additional Rs 1,000 crore is to be raised by issuing tier II bonds or other such debt instruments. The stock of Bank of Maharashtra closed 7.90 percent higher at Rs 14.61 on BSE.