Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Oct 27: J&K Bank today delivered a re-assuring performance by posting net profit of Rs 101.83 Crore for half-year ended September 2017, the results of which were declared and adopted in its Board Meeting held at Corporate Headquarters.
Chairman and CEO, Parvez Ahmed while expressing his satisfaction on the performance delivered by the Bank for past two quarters especially during the September quarter attributed the faster than anticipated turnaround to the coordinated efforts of Operations and Administrative Teams of the Bank across the geographies.
Market analysts too have rated the performance of the Bank as very positive and are expecting similar performance for remaining quarters of the year.
“We are sincerely trying to live up to our promise of providing the growth capital to our entrepreneurs in the State and have expanded our J&K State credit portfolio by close to 15% on YoY basis – the net incremental disbursements of over Rs. 3600 crore in the State accounting for 65% of the net incremental credit extended by the Bank has resulted in share of J&K in the Bank’s loan portfolio improving to 52% from 50% a year ago.
“Our thrust on upgradation and recoveries of bad loans coupled with our sustained focus on better liability management is slowly paying off and one can see it clearly in our September numbers. Cost of deposits has come down and NIM has improved markedly”, Parvez Ahmed said.
“The incidence of slippages gradually reducing and thrust on recovery has resulted in improvement of Net NPA to 4.76 p.c. from 6.81 p.c. a year ago”, he added.
Commenting on the numbers, the Chairman said, “The profit growth is largely driven by better liability management resulting in reduction in cost of deposit from 5.93% to 5.22%, increased focus on recovery of NPAs and credit growth in J&K state as we continue to leverage our strong footprint and franchise within the State”, the Chairman said.
Highlighting the position of advances and deposits for quarter ended September 2017, he informed that, “Deposits of the bank stood at Rs 70384.60 crore as on September 2017 as compared to Rs 69884.88 crore as on September 2016. Net Advances are at Rs 51341.32 crore as on September 2017 as compared to Rs 47552.74 crore as on September 2016. The traction in credit growth being observed especially in J&K State suggested that the envisaged credit growth of 25% in credit in the State is well within reach’.
Thanking various Stakeholders especially Government of Jammu and Kashmir, the Chief Minister and the Finance Minister for much deserved hand holding during all this period, the Chairman quoted their timely support as the back bone for facilitating Bank’s recovery. Elaborating on the challenges ahead for the Bank, Parvez expressed confidence in Bank’s ability to face every situation and assured of better performances for all the ensuing periods.