State-owned UCO Bank on Tuesday reported a net loss of Rs 1,552.02 crore in the quarter ended March 2019 as the bank’s bad loan levels refuse to be tamed. However, the bank’s performance has improved compared to the same quarter of the previous year, when it posted a net loss of Rs 2,134.36 crore.
According to the figures disclosed by the bank, the loss in the quarter ended March has widened sequentially compared to the previous quarter ended December 2018, when it has posted a net loss of Rs 998.74 crore. For the entire financial year 2018-19, UCO Bank recorded a net loss of Rs 4,321.09 crore, slightly lower that the Rs 4,436.37 crore loss it had recorded in the full financial year of 2017-18.
The state-run lender’s gross NPA ratio actually worsened to a whopping 25 per cent at the end of March 2019, against the 24.64 per cent level at the end of March 2018. GNPA has improved when compared to the quarter ended December 2018, when the figure had stood at 27.39 per cent.
The bank has managed to trim its net NPA levels however, at 9.72 per cent against 13.10 per cent a year ago. This figure had stood at 12.48 per cent at the end of December 2018.
The high bad loan ratios have forced the bank to make proportionally large provisions, which came in at Rs 2,601.80 crore for the March quarter against Rs 3,133.52 crore a year ago. UCO’s total assets grew to Rs 2,30,484.08 crore as on March 31, 2019, from Rs 2,16,056.18 crore a year ago.
It also declared a divergence of (-)Rs 2.68 crore in gross NPAs for 2017-18, and (-)Rs 663.44 crore in net NPAs. Provisioning divergence stood at Rs 660.76 crore in 2017-18, it said. Its net loss for FY18 has now been adjusted to Rs 5,099.81 crore.
As for total income, it stood at Rs 4,148.52 crore in the March quarter compared to Rs 3,424.65 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal year. For the full financial year 2018-19, total income rose to Rs 15,844.14 crore against Rs 15,141.13 crore in FY18.