United Bank Q1 net up by 31 percent

Kolkata, Aug 3 (IANS) State-run United Bank of India Friday reported a 31.28 percent jump in net profit to Rs.1.72 billion for the quarter ended June 30, 2012, from Rs.1.32 billion during the same period last fiscal.

The Kolkata-based bank's net interest income during the quarter soared 20.1 percent on a year-on-year basis to reach Rs 6.84 billion.

During the period under review, the bank's advances increased by 19.8 percent to Rs.636.25 billion, while deposits grew by 16.3 percent to reach Rs.896.39 billion.

"There is a healthy growth in net interest income. We have also seen a growth in non interest income, where the growth is more than 26 percent. And on the operating expenditure side, we could contain our expenditure. So both put together had helped us to see this kind of growth in net profit," Chairman and Managing Director Bhaskar Sen told reporters after announcing the results here.

Sen said during the quarter the bank's fresh slippages came down and cash recovery went up.

"Slippages in this quarter came down compared to the previous quarters. In this quarter we have seen fresh slippages of Rs.296 crore (Rs 2.96 billion) as against

Rs.391 crore (Rs.3.91 billion) in the first quarter last financial year," he informed.

Net NPA of the public sector lender stood at 1.77 percent and gross NPA at 3.47 percent as on June 30 this year.