IDBI net up to Rs 245 cr for Q4 2008

Mumbai, Apr 26 (UNI) The Industrial Development Bank of India (IDBI) has posted a 15.02 per cent higher net profit at Rs 245 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 31 2008 as against Rs 213 crore in the corresponding quarter last year.

The annual net profit recorded by IDBI was higher by 15.73 per cent at Rs 729 crore for the financial year ended March 31, 2008 as against Rs 630 crore last year.

After the Board meeting held here today, IDBI CMD Yogesh Agarwal told media persons, ''As of March 31, 2008, IDBI's total business (deposits and advances) stood at Rs 155,211 crore as against Rs 105,825 crore as of March 31, 2007, registering a growth of 46.67 per cent.'' Deposits increased by a robust 68.38 per cent year-on-year to Rs 72,998 crore from Rs 43,354 crore outstanding as of March 31, 2007.

Advances also increased by 31.60 per cent to Rs 82,213 crore y-o-y as compared to Rs 62,471 crore as at March 31, 2007.

As at March 31, 2008, aggregate assets stood at Rs 130,694 crore as against Rs 103,839 crore as at March 31, 2007, registering a growth of 25.86 per cent.

The gross non performance assets and net NPAs as on March 31, 2008 stood at Rs 1565 crore (1.87 per cent) and Rs 1083 crore (1.30 per cent) respectively as against Rs 1232 crore (1.89 per cent) and Rs. 722 crore (1.12 per cent) as on March 31, 2007.

IDBI continued to maintain a sound capital base as indicated by its Capital Adequacy Ratio (CAR). As against the stipulated RBI norm of 9 per cent, the Bank's CAR stood at 11.95 per cent (Tier-I: 7.42 per cent) as on March 31, 2008.

IDBI has been steadily expanding its delivery platform during the year, which, as on date, comprises 499 branches and 779 ATMs, encompassing 308 centres. The Bank plans to make its maiden foray overseas during 2008 by opening branches in Singapore, Dubai and Shanghai in a phased manner.

Meanwhile, IDBI Chief Financial Officer R K Bansal informed that the Bank has bagged two special awards -- ''Best Payments Initiative''and ''Outstanding Achiever of the Year'' -- for the year 2007 from the Indian Banks' Association in recognition of its customer-centric IT initiatives.

IDBI completed the reorganisation of its business into separate verticals focused on customer groups like Personal Banking, Mid-Corporate,Large Corporate, Infrastructure SME and Agri-business.

A separate recovery vertical has also been created for handling stressed assets.

During the quarter, the Bank established a USD 1.5 billion Medium Term Note (MTN) Programme. The programme will now enable the Bank to issue various debt instruments in the international capital markets, including Senior Notes, Upper Tier-2 Notes and Hybrid Tier-1 Notes under a single documentation platform.

The Bank has set up an Entrepreneurial Development Fund (EDF) with a corpus of Rs 10 crore for financing the entrepreneurs in the small and medium sectors. The Bank's life insurance joint venture with Fortis and Federal Bank commenced operations in March 2008.

In March 2008, IDBI had opened its first City SME Center in Mumbai to streamline credit appraisal process to ensure faster turnaround time, while in February 2008, it had entered into a strategic alliance with Motilal Oswal Securities to facilitate online trading for the Bank's customers.

UNI AR MAZ SM1830