Canara Bank Q4 profit rises 28%, targets 11% loan growth

Mumbai, May 9: State-owned Canara Bank on Thursday reported a 28 percent rise in its consolidated net profit to Rs 5,070 crore in the March quarter, driven by a reduction in provisions and a rise in non-core income.
The public sector bank had reported a net profit of Rs 3,951 crore in the same period a year ago.
Its post-tax profit in FY25 rose to Rs 17,540 crore from Rs 15,279 crore in FY24.
Despite 11 percent loan growth, its core net interest income declined 1.44 per cent to Rs 9,442 crore in the quarter under review, while net interest margin declined 0.25 percentage points to 2.80 per cent.
Non-interest income during the quarter under review grew 21.74 per cent to Rs 6,351 crore, including a 30 per cent rise in recoveries from written-off accounts to Rs 2,471 crore and a 15 per cent rise in fiscal income to Rs 995 crore.
Fresh slippages declined to Rs 2,655 crore and gross non-performing asset ratio improved to 2.94 percent in March from 3.34 per cent three months ago.
Total provisions declined to Rs 1,831 crore from Rs 2,483 crore a year ago, while provisions for NPAs rose to Rs 2,849 crore from Rs 2,282 crore.
It had set aside Rs 295 crore for non-performing investments in the year-ago period, while it did a write-back of Rs 1,334 crore in the current fiscal, which helped.
Its managing director and chief executive Satyanarayana Raju said it is targeting 10-11 percent loan growth in FY26, while deposit growth will also remain above 9 percent.
The bank will also aim to maintain NIM between 2.75-2.80 percent in FY26, he said. He said 44 percent of its loan book is linked to external benchmarks, which are re-evaluated soon after the RBI cuts the repo rate.
It is also targeting to reduce the stock of gross NPAs to 2.50 percent in the new fiscal, he said. Overall capital adequacy stood at 16.39 percent, including core buffer at 12.09 percent, and Raju said the bank board will meet early next month to consider capital raising plans.
Canara Bank shares closed 1.84 percent higher at Rs 95.38 on BSE, while the benchmark index fell 0.51 percent.