UCO Bank shares climb 2 pc on BSE after Q4 earnings

KOLKATA: Shares of UCO Bank on Tuesday climbed 2 per cent after the firm reported an 86.2 per cent rise in net profit for the March 2023 quarter.

The company's stock gained 2.06 per cent to settle at Rs 30.72 on the BSE. During the day, it climbed 4.71 per cent to Rs 31.52.

At the NSE, it advanced 0.66 per cent to finish at Rs 30.30.

In terms of traded volume, 71.09 lakh shares of the firm were traded on BSE and over 5.10 crore shares at NSE during the day.

Net profit of city-based UCO Bank increased 86.2 per cent to Rs 581 crore at the end of the fourth quarter of 2022-23 as compared to Rs 312 crore in the corresponding similar previous period.

Global business of the bank for the fiscal 2022-23 touched more than Rs 4.10 lakh crore, with deposits at Rs 2.50 lakh crore and advances at Rs 1.61 lakh crore.

MD&CEO of UCO Bank Soma Sankara Prasad said that the bank will raise money from the market in the form of Tier I capital.

"Government holding in the bank stands at 95.39 per cent. It will be brought down to a reasonable level for which it will tap the capital market," Prasad said at a virtual news conference.

On asset quality, he said the GNPA of the bank stood lower at 4.78 per cent at the end of the fourth quarter, while NNPA was at 1.29 per cent.

Prasad said some of the restructured accounts are under stress. "There is no general stress in the SME loan book", he added.

According to him, there is good demand for credit from corporates in sectors like cement, steel, chemicals, FMCG, renewables and NBFCs.

The bank has also entered into co-lending activity with a number of NBFCs, Prasad said.

The capital adequacy ratio of the bank at the end of the fourth quarter of the last fiscal stood at 16.51 per cent. "The capital position of the bank is healthy and the bank will have no problem while growing in future", he stated.

Net interest margin (NIM), the spread that the banks enjoy for advancing loans and taking deposits, stood at 2.87 per cent, he said. Efforts will be there to improve NIM and take it to three per cent, he added.

The provision coverage ratio (PCR) of the bank increased to 94.5 per cent as on March 31, 2023, from 91.44 per cent in the similar previous period.

The bank reported a profit of Rs 312.18 crore in the January-March quarter of 2021-22.

UCO Bank has posted its highest-ever annual net profit of Rs 1,862.34 crore in 2022-23 against Rs 929.76 crore in the preceding fiscal, registering a nearly 100 per cent year-on-year growth, the Kolkata headquartered lender said in a stock exchange filing.

The net interest income (NII) at Rs 7,343.13 crore during the year too was the bank's highest ever.

The bank's gross non-performing assets (NPA) in the fourth quarter declined to 4.78 per cent from 7.89 per cent a year ago.