UBI manages growth 2019-2020

Kolkata, 6 February (HS): Kolkata headquartered Public sector United Bank of India (UBI) which is gearing up for the proposed merger with two other public sector banks on 1 April as announced by Union Finance minister Nirmala Sitaraman last year, has posted a net profit of Rs 114 crores during the third quarter of the current financial year ending on 31 December 2019. Announcing the Q-3 financial results of the Bank, separately for the last time before its merger/ amalgamation with Punjab  National Bank(PNB) and the Oriental Bank of Commerce (OBC), UBI Managing Director and the Chief Executive Officer(CEO) Ashok Kumar Pradhan said here this afternoon that the Operating profits of the bank during the last quarter had also recorded a massive 66.32 percent jump to Rs 637 crores, while the total business had increased to Rs 2,08615 crores. Stating that the merger process of the Bank was progressing as per schedule under the strict guidance of the 34 member high power Finance Committee to evaluate the total value of the bank and its assets, Pradhan said keeping this in mind steps had also been initiated to bring the bank out of the present difficult period within the next couple of months by maintaining its growth momentum. Referring to the all-out efforts to bring down the Net NPA ratio of the Bank to below 6 percent by March 2020, the MD said till December last they had already been able to bring it down to 8.56 percent from 12.08 percent, recorded during the corresponding period of last year. Similarly, the Gross NPA margin had also come down to 15.48 percent from 21.27 percent earlier, Pradhan said. Moreover, he said, during this intervening period though they had been able to recover Rs 1810 crores from the defaulters, a sum of Rs 1723 crores were added into the cash book as fresh slippages during the last quarter causing some concern to the authorities. Asked about the growth in Deposits and in Advances given by the bank to lenders during the third quarter from October to December last, the MD said while the Deposits accounted for Rs 1,34624 crores, Advances were to the tune of Rs 73,991 crores.’ Keeping the similar pace of growth we are looking forward to achieving a total business volume of Rs 2,20,000 crores by March 2020′, he told Hindusthan Samachar replying to a query. Coming back to the issue of the proposed merger Pradhan said on their way to become the second-largest public sector bank in India after April steps had been taken to rationalize the activities of the bank in line with the government policy where the share of UBI would be determined on the valuation of PNB since it was the largest among the three amalgamated banks.
‘We are expecting a fresh notification from the union ministry within the next two to three days about the merger issue, he said and claimed that the Net Interest Margin of the bank had finally recorded an expected 2.98 percent growth against the target of only 2 percent during the last quarter. It was a major achievement, he claimed. Meanwhile, another Kolkata based public sector Bank – UCO Bank – which has been on the Red for the past few years, has been able to reduce its Net losses from Rs 998.74 crores a year ago to Rs 960.17 crores by December last year. However, during the same period the Operating profits of the bank had gone up to Rs. 1210.52 crores from Rs 1057 crores at the end of the second quarter, said its MD and CEO S P Agarwal during a separate interaction here this evening. Informing that they had received a government recapitalization fund of Rs  2142 crores only a  few days ago, Agarwal reiterated his commitment to bring down the NPA margin to less than 6 percent by Match next from  6.34 percent now worth Rs 6199.65 crores. 
Hindusthan Samachar- Ankur Bhattacharya