Ujjivan Small Finance Bank on Saturday reported narrowing of its net loss to Rs 34 crore during the October-December quarter as against a net loss of Rs 279 crore in the year-ago quarter. Loss stood at Rs 274 crore in the preceding September quarter.
The small finance bank’s net interest income (NII) grew 5 per cent year-on-year (YoY) to Rs 454 crore during the quarter under review. On a quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) basis, NII rose 16 per cent from Rs 391 crore in July-September quarter. Net interest margin stood at 9.1 per cent as against 9.7 per cent a year ago and 8.1 per cent in the preceding quarter.
Total deposits grew 34 per cent YoY to Rs 15,563 crore, while retail deposits stood at 53 per cent of total deposits as against 48 per cent in December quarter of previous year. The CASA (current account and savings account) ratio stood at 26 per cent during December 2021 quarter as compared with 18 per cent in the year-ago quarter.
The bank said it added 2.1 lakh customers during December quarter, while the addition in April-December period stood at 5 lakh.
On asset front, the gross non-performing assets declined to 9.8 per cent as of December 31 from 11.8 per cent as of September 30, while net non-performing assets also declined to 1.7 per cent from 3.3 per cent.
Ujjivan Small Finance Bank wrote-off Rs 152 crore of loans in December quarter, while the provision coverage ratio stood at 84 per cent at the end of the quarter.
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The bank said it has seen consistent improvement in collections with December collection efficiency at 97 per cent, up from 95 per cent in September. “Improving collections has led to portfolio at risk declining to 14.9 per cent as of Dec’21 from 18.9 per cent as on Sep’21,” it said.
The quarterly disbursements were highest ever at Rs 4,809 crore, registering a growth of 120 per cent YoY and 54 per cent QoQ.
“Last couple of months have been challenging due to internal and external issues, despite that we focussed on business and streamlined processes which lead to improved portfolio quality, higher business volumes and reduced attrition, in-line with our 100-day plan. We continue to attract good talent and over last few months have strengthened the leadership team further…,” Ujjivan Small Finance Bank MD and CEO Ittira Davis said.
Despite the rise in COVID-19 cases, Davis said, the business has not witnessed any major disruption and monthly collections improved in January as well.
“This was also facilitated by our learnings from the past two waves. Q4 business volumes have started on a steady note and we look forward to step-up the all-round performance delivered in Q3FY22 while we continue to monitor the ground situation closely,” he added.
Shares of Ujjivan Small Finance Bank ended 1.03 per cent higher at Rs 19.60 on the BSE on Friday.
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