Punjab National Bank may shutdown 300 loss-making branches

State-owned Punjab National Bank might be looking to shut down nearly 300 of it's loss-making branches over next 12 months as per media reports. 

Sunil Mehta, Managing Director and Chief Executive of PNB in a Moneycontrol report said, “We have closed 2 or 3 branches so far. One of our departments is working on it. We have identified about 200-300 loss-making branches. So, either we will prepare a plan for revamping them, or merger, closure or reopening them at other locations.”

This move comes as part of their consolidation plan. 

Earlier last week there were reports where Mehta had indicated that PNB is not actively considering any consolidation move - but as of now they only plan to merge within the bank and raise funds by selling non-core assets. 

By end of FY17, PNB had a total of 6,937 branches operating. Interestingly, the bank further added nine branches between April - June 2017 quarter but closed down somewhat six branches in July - September 2017 quarter taking the total at 9,940 branches. 

As on September 2017, PNB saw just 2.2% increase in its net profit to Rs 561 crore compared to net profit of Rs 549 crore in the same period of the previous year. 

Gross NPA's of PNB came down by 13.31% to Rs 57,630.11 crore in Q2FY18 versus Rs  56,465.63 crore a year ago same period. 

On Wednesday, PNB further mentioned that the board of directors have approved to raise Rs 5,000 crore via Qualified Institutional Placement. 

Share price of PNB ended on a negative note at Rs 189.25 per piece down by 0.79% on BSE. However in the entire day of trading session, the bank has dropped by 2.39%.