Canara Bank September quarter profit rises 11% to Rs 4,015 crore

State-owned Canara Bank on Tuesday reported an 11 per cent rise in its net profit to Rs 4,015 crore in the second quarter ended September 2024.

The Bengaluru-based lender had earned a net profit of Rs 3,606 crore in the same quarter a year ago.

Total income increased to Rs 34,721 crore during the quarter under review against Rs 31,472 crore in the same quarter last year, Canara Bank said in a regulatory filing.

The bank reported an interest income of Rs 29,740 crore during the quarter, higher than Rs 26,838 crore in the same period a year ago.

On the asset quality front, the bank witnessed improvement with gross Non-Performing Assets (NPAs) declining to 3.73 per cent of the gross loans by the end of September 2024 from 4.76 per cent a year ago.

Similarly, net NPAs or bad loans moderated to 0.99 per cent from 1.41 per cent at the end of the second quarter of the previous fiscal.

Provision Coverage Ratio (PCR) rose to 90.89 per cent as of September 2024 against 89.22 per cent as of June 2024 and 88.73 per cent as of September 2023.

Capital Adequacy Ratio of the bank too improved to 16.57 per cent from 16.20 per cent at the end of the second quarter of last year.

On a consolidated basis, the bank's profit increased to Rs 4,188 crore over Rs 3,798 crore in Q2FY24.

Talking on quarterly numbers, Canara Bank Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer K Satyanarayana Raju said, the bank's global business increased by 9.42 per cent to Rs 23,59,344 crore as of September 2024 with total deposits at Rs 13,47,347 crore, up 9.34 per cent, and total advance at Rs 10,11,997 crore, 9.53 per cent higher year-on-year.

Raju further said that the approval from the finance ministry for the Initial Public Offering ( IPO ) of Canara Robeco Asset Management Company (AMC) is expected shortly.

"RFP process is completed for Canara Robecco AMC IPO. The timeline will remain the same for an IPO. The Department of Financial Services approval is expected in fortnight's time," Raju said during the post-earnings call.

The lender holds a 51 per cent stake in the mutual fund. It plans to offload a 13 per cent stake through IPO.

Last December, Canara Bank gave an in-principle approval to start the process of listing its mutual fund subsidiary by way of an initial share sale.

Upon listing, this will mark the entry of the fifth mutual fund house into the stock markets, joining the ranks of HDFC AMC, Nippon Life India AMC, UTI Asset Management Company and Aditya Birla Sun Life AMC.

As of September 2024, the bank had 9,658 branches, of which 3,115 are rural, 2,778 semi-urban, 1,918 urban and 1,847 metro along with 9,881 ATMs.

The bank also has four overseas branches in London, New York, Dubai and IBU Gift City.