Global Trust Bank clocks a net profit of Rs 19.41 crore in H1

Our Banking Bureau
30 October 2002

New Delhi: The board of directors of Global Trust Bank (GTB) has approved the unaudited accounts for the half year ended 30 September 2002 at its meeting held on 29 October 2002. The bank reported a net profit of Rs 19.41 crore for the half year ended 30 September 2002.

“We have addressed the asset portfolio; exposure norms were reviewed and scaled down. The capital market exposure has also been reduced, and focussed recovery teams have been set up. Internal procedures and systems were improved, and steps have been taken to diversify risks. The bank is now poised for growth,“ says GTB Managing Director Sudhakar Gande.

Income and expenditure
The total income for the half year ended 30 September 2002 was Rs 395.6 crore, of which the interest income is Rs 320.65 crore. The other income for the first half of FY 2002-03 is lower at Rs 74.95 crore on account of lower market-related opportunities in trading income of SLR (statutory liquidity ratio) securities.

The interest expenditure was brought down by more than 20 per cent to Rs 273.8 crore from Rs 346.2 crore (September 2001) owing to an improvement in the share of low-cost deposits from 13.9 per cent to 16.5 per cent, a conscious reduction in high-cost deposits and a reduction in interest rates offered on deposits. As a result, the cost of deposits dropped by more than 100 basis points and the net interest income improved by more than 8 per cent to Rs 46.85 crore.

The cost-monitoring measures initiated by the bank are yielding good results. Despite an increase in the delivery network by 14 branches and 88 ATMs, the increase was very marginal.

Provisions
GTB made a provision of just Rs 12.06 crore towards depreciation on investments and impaired assets since the asset quality has improved owing to substantial write-offs and provisions during the previous year ended March 2002.