UBI targets Rs 1,60,000 crore by March '07

Chennai, Jul 20: Buoyed by the good performance in the first quarter ending June 30 this year, the Public Sector Union Bank of India (UBI) has targetted to achieve a total business of Rs 1,60,000 crore by the end of March 2007.

Releasing the results of the first quarter here today, Bank's General Manager R Vishwanathan told reporters that the Bank's total business grew by 26.30 per cent (Rs 27,546 crore) year-on-year from Rs 1,04,773 crore to Rs 1,32,319 crore as on June 30 this year.

The operating profit for the quarter improved to Rs 427 crore, a 20.96 per cent growth, while the net profit slided down to Rs 167 crore from Rs 240 crore, due to higher provisions in investments and taxes.

Mr Vishwanathan said the net NPA ratio came down considerably to 1.22 per cent in June this year as against 2.39 per cent when compared to last quarter. This was possible due to some concerted recovery measures taken by the bank, including compromise proposals.

He said the bank's total deposit increased from Rs 63,158 crore to Rs 76,517 crore, a 21.15 per cent growth. The average deposits grew by 20.24 per cent YoY to Rs 74,240 crore from Rs 61,6742 crore and the demand deposits portfolio grew by 26.60 per cent from Rs 20.321 crore to Rs 25.726 crore. The demand deposits accounted for 33.62 per cent of the total deposits, up from 32.37 per cent in March 2006.

The Advances grew to Rs 55,802 crore from Rs 41.615 crore at a rate of 34.09 per cent and the Credit Deposit Ratio stood at 72.92 per cent as of June this year as against 65.89 per cent the previous year.

While the total Interest Income was Rs 1666 crore as against Rs 1,358 crore, an increase of 22.68 per cent, the Net Interest Income went up to Rs 635 crore from Rs 535 crore, a growth of 18.69 per cent.

On Retail lending which was one of the priority sectors, Mr Vishwanathan said the retail loans during the quarter grew from Rs 8,623 crore to Rs 11,906 crore, an increase of 38.07 per cent.

The Home loan portfolio stood at Rs 4,669 crore, a whopping 44.01 per cent growth as against previous year's level of Rs 3,242 crores, while the priority sector lending stood at Rs 22,499 crore as against Rs 18,211 crore, registering a 23.54 growth.

The Agriculture lending went up by 30.18 per cent to Rs 8,412 crore as against Rs 6,462 crore during the corresponding quarter last year.

UNI