Bank of Maharashtra (BoM) reported a 72 per cent year-on-year (YoY) jump in second quarter net profit at Rs 920 crore, on the back of healthy growth in net interest income and other income, and a sharp decline in tax expenses.

The robust growth in bottomline comes despite the Pune-headquartered public sector bank making provisions for standard/ restructured assets amounting to Rs 362 crore.

The bank had reported a net profit of Rs 535 crore in the year-ago quarter.

Net interest income (difference between interest earned and interest expended) was up 29 per cent YoY at Rs 2,432 crore (Rs 1,887 crore in the year-ago quarter).

Other income, including fee-based income, treasury income and recovery in written-off accounts, rose 33 per cent YoY to Rs 668 crore (Rs 502 crore).

Tax expenses (net of deferred tax assets and write-back) declined sharply to Rs 16 crore (Rs 348 crore).

AS Rajeev, MD & CEO, expects the bank to sustain the current advances growth of about 23 per cent, log 15-16 per cent deposit growth, and keep the net interest margin of above 3.50 per cent in FY24.

Net interest margin (interest income – interest expense/ total assets) rose to 3.89 per cent from 3.55 per cent a year ago.

Besides, the provision for standard/ restructured assets, which was made to take care of any eventuality, especially in agriculture advances, the bank bad loans provisioning amounted to Rs 597 crore (Rs 532 crore).

The gross non-performing assets (GNPAs) position improved to 2.19 per cent of gross advances as at September-end 2023, against 2.28 per cent at June-end 2023. The net NPAs position, too, improved to 0.23 per cent of net advances as at September-end 2023, against 0.24 per cent as at June-end 2023.

Gross advances increased by 23.55 per cent YoY to Rs 1,83,122 crore as at September-end 2023, with agriculture advances recording the highest growth (30.39 per cent), followed by the MSME sector (25.80 per cent), corporate & others (22.40 per cent), and retail (20.37 per cent).

Total deposits rose by 22.18 per cent YoY to Rs 2,39,298 crore as at September-end 2023. The share of current account, savings account deposits declined to 50.71 per cent of total deposits, from 56.27 per cent.

BoM’s shares closed at Rs 47.42 apiece on BSE, up 1.26 per cent over the previous close.