SBT profit touches Rs 258.68 crore

Thiruvananthapuram, Apr 29 (UNI) The State Bank of Travancore (SBT) has made a net profit of Rs 258.68 crore during the year ended March 31 as against Rs 247.13 crore in the last fiscal.

The Board of Directors of the bank has declared a dividend of 100 per cent up from 75 per cent paid during the last two financial years, a bank press release said today.

Profitability could be sustained mainly on account of an increase in the net interest income and lower depreciation on the investment portfolio. The non-interest income (excluding profit on sale of investments) recorded a growth of 24.26 per cent and the total income rose to the level of Rs 2,649.69 crore as against Rs 2,416.84 crore during 2004-05.

Its total business increased by Rs 4,989 crore, thereby crossing another milestone of Rs 45,000 crore business.

Total deposits grew by 7.72 per cent (Rs 1,863.50 crore) during the period to touch the level of Rs 25,996.51 crore. Personal segment deposits grew by 11.49 per cent (Rs 1,719 crore) during the period to touch Rs 16,675 crore, the release said.

Deposits from the NRIs also grew by 9.59 per cent during the period to touch Rs 7,875.97 crore.

The bank's total advances recorded a growth of 27.06 per cent - Rs 4,018.07 crore - to reach the level of Rs 18,860.40 crore.

The CD ratio of the bank increased from 62.88 per cent to 73.30 per cent during the period. The CD ratio for Kerala has improved from 56.67 per cent to 59.96 per cent registering an increase of 3.29 per cent.

The bank's lending to the priority sectors constituted 45.15 per cent of the net bank credit as against the stipulated benchmark of 40 per cent. During the year, its priority sector lendings grew by Rs 2,060 crore to reach Rs 7,755 crore, recording a growth of over 36.17 per cent.

The bank's lendings to agriculture registered an all-time high growth of Rs 741.59 crore and reached the level of Rs 2,347.04 crore during the period.

SBT opened 20 new branches during the period taking the total number of branches to 690. So also, 22 new ATMs were installed during the year taking the total number of ATMs to 287. The ATMs of the bank are part of the over 5,500 strong ATM network of the State Bnk Group providing its customers access to all the ATMs in the State Bank Group, the release said.

UNI PMM2010