SBI Q3 net rises 62% to ₹8,432 crore, provision drops 32.5%

State Bank of India (SBI), the country’s largest lender, has reported 62.3% year-on-year (YoY) growth in its net profit at ₹8,432 crore for the third quarter ended December 31, 2021, supported by a solid gain in the personal retail segment, driven by home loans, Xpress credit and other loans.

The Mumbai-headquartered bank had posted a net profit of ₹5,196 crore in Q3FY21 and ₹7,627 crore in Q2FY22, the PSU bank said in a regulatory filing on Saturday.

The total income of the bank rose by 3.1% to ₹78,351 crore in Q3 FY22, as against ₹75,981 crore in the same period last year.

Net interest income, the difference between interest earned and interest paid, climbed 6.5% to ₹30,687 crore, from ₹28,820 crore in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal. The net interest margin improved to 6 basis points to 3.4% as compared to 3.34% in the same period last year.

During the quarter under review, the lender earned interest income of Rs 69,678 crore, up 4.41% from Rs 66,734 crore in the same quarter last year.

Non-interest income (comprising fee, services, and other income) dropped 6.2% to Rs 8,773 crore over Rs 9,246 crore in Q3FY21.

The bank's operating profit increased by 6.9% YoY to Rs 18,522 crore in Q3FY22, from Rs 17,333 crore in Q3FY21.

Provision and contingencies declined by 32.5% ₹6,974 crore in October-December quarter of 2021 as against ₹10,342 crore in December 2020. During the quarter under review, the Covid-19 related provisions stood at ₹6,183 crore. The Provision Coverage Ratio (PCR), funds sets aside for losses due to bad debts, was at 88.32% as of December 31, 2021.

On the asset quality front, the gross non-performing assets (NPAs) ratio as a percentage of gross advances dropped to 4.5%, from 4.77% in Q3 FY21 and 4.9% in the September quarter of the current fiscal. The net NPA ratio rose to 1.34% for the quarter against 1.52% in the previous quarter. In absolute terms, the bank's gross NPA stood at ₹120,029 crore and net NPA stood at ₹34,540 crore as of December 31, 2021.

Slippages for the quarter stood at ₹2,334 crore, lower than the ₹4,176 crore reported in the previous quarter. The slippage ratio was at 0.37% against 0.66% in the previous quarter.

For the October-December period of the current fiscal, deposits rose 8.83% YoY to ₹38,47,794 crore, while gross advances surged 8.47% to ₹26,64,602 crore.

The bank’s total capital adequacy ratio (CAR) stood at 13.23% as on December 31, 2021, without including profit for nine-month ended December 2021. “If we include profit of 9MFY22, the CAR will improve by 94 bps,” SBI said.

During the nine months ended December 31, 2021, the bank has raised additional Tier-1 capital of 13,974 crore.

Ahead of Q3 results, shares of SBI ended 1.83% lower at ₹530.20 apiece on the BSE on Friday.