India’s largest bank State Bank of India (SBI) on Friday announced a 41% increase in its autonomous net profit to ₹9,113.5 crore for the quarter ended March 2022, its highest quarterly profit on record, but missed analysts’ estimates as bad debt provisions rose sequentially. The lender had reported a profit of ₹6,450.7 crores in the prior year quarter.
SBI’s net interest income (NII), the difference between interest earned and interest spent, increased 15% to ₹31,198 crores during Q4FY22 from ₹27,067 crore year-on-year (YoY). Domestic net interest margin (NIM) for Q4FY22 increased 29 basis points year-on-year to 3.40%.
The total provision for risks including those for bad debts amounts to ₹7,237 crores compared to ₹6,974 crore from the previous quarter and ₹11,051 crore (Annual).
The public lender’s asset quality improved, with gross non-performing assets (NPA) representing 3.97% of total assets, down from 4.50%, while net NPA stood at 1.02% versus 1.34% quarter over quarter (QT).
SBI’s Provision Coverage Ratio (PCR) improved by 416 basis points year-on-year to 75.04%. The PCR (including AUCA) is 90.20%. Meanwhile, its slippage ratio for the fourth quarter was 0.43%.
The board declared a dividend of ₹7.10 per share (710%) for the financial year ended March 31, 2022. The registration date for said dividend was set for Thursday May 26, 2022.
On a consolidated basis, the bank recorded a 56% increase in net profit to ₹9,549 crore, compared to ₹6,126 crores in the fourth quarter of the prior year.
SBI shares were trading up 2% at ₹473 each on BSE in Friday afternoon bids. The banking stock is down 0.3% year-to-date (YTD).
