Karnataka Bank Q1FY23 Results: Profit rises 8% YoY to Rs 114 cr, asset quality improves

Karnataka Bank on Saturday reported nearly 8 per cent increase in net profit at Rs 114 crore for June quarter 2022-23 helped by a growth in core income and fall in bad loans.

The private sector lender had posted a net profit of Rs 105.91 crore in the year-ago period.

Total income during April-June 2022-23 only rose by 0.73 per cent to Rs 1,762 crore, Karnataka Bank said in a regulatory filing.

Core income, in terms of net interest, increased 20 per cent in the quarter to Rs 687.56 crore as against Rs 574.79 crore in the year-ago period.

However, income from other sources fell by 41 per cent to Rs 133 crore as against Rs 226 crore.

In terms of asset quality, the bank's loan book quality was steadily improving and gross non-performing assets (NPA) fell to 4.03 per cent of gross advances as of June 30, 2022 compared to 4.84 per cent by end of June 2021.

In absolute terms, gross NPAs or bad loans declined to Rs 2,401.39 crore from Rs 2,549.06 crore. Similarly, net NPAs came down to 2.16 per cent (Rs 1,262.88 crore) from 3.02 per cent (Rs 1,557.38 crore).

The bank is making steady progress in its customer franchise building and has also acquired 1,572 MSME accounts in the quarter.

It also did well in the sale of mutual funds and co-branded credit card. Retail advances growth continued during the quarter as well.

Capital Adequacy Ratio (CAR) of the bank further improved to 15.41 per cent as compared to 14.58 per cent as on June 30, 2021.

Karnataka Bank started the new financial year with a comfortable first quarter, wherein the growth was consistent and broad based as credit grew 13.03 per cent and CASA (current account savings account) by 12.51 per cent year-on-year, Mahabaleshwara M S, Managing Director & CEO of the bank, said.

"Moreover, in spite of a temporary aberration of a corporate advance, which required 100 per cent provisioning, the slippage ratio is at 1.03 per cent and the net profit also grew by 7.69 per cent year-on-year," he said.

NIM (net interest margin) further improved to 3.33 per cent and the increasing trend in NIM indicates the consistent improvement in all the contributing factors and is on the expected lines, he added.

Among other key metrics, the bank's business turnover was at Rs 1,38,935.71 crore at end-June 2022 compared to Rs 1,27,846.08 crore by the year-ago period, registering a yearly growth of 8.67 per cent.

The deposits of the bank grew 5.72 per cent at Rs 80,576.38 crore and advances by 13.03 per cent at Rs 58,359.33 crore.