• Investment World
• eWorld
• Brand Line
• Mentor
• Life
• Canvas
• Praxis
• Urban Pulse
• Brand Quest
• The New Manager

Stocks

• Quotes
• SE Diary
• Scoreboard
• Open-End Mutual Fund

Cross Currency

• Rates
  
  

Shipping

• Ports
  
  

Archives

• Yesterday
• Datewise
• Resources
• In Focus
• In Depth

Group Sites

• The Hindu
• The Hindu ePaper
• Business Line
• Business Line ePaper
• Sportstar
• Frontline
• The Hindu eBooks
• The Hindu Images

Our Bureau

Sets up 8th large corporate branch to process loan applications above Rs 25-cr

LARGE CORPORATE BRANCH LAUNCH: Mr Vinod Rai (left), Special Secretary, Banking & Finance, and Mr S.C. Gupta, Chairman and Managing Director, Punjab National Bank, at the launch of 8th Large Corporate Branch in the Capital on Thursday. - Kamal Narang

New Delhi , Oct. 12

Punjab National Bank (PNB) on Thursday said that its second quarter net profit would be "much better" than the first quarter performance. The country's second largest public sector lender had reported a net profit of Rs 367.52 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2006.

"Our second quarter profits would be much better than the first. This is mainly due to the fact that there would be no provision for depreciation in government securities portfolio in Q2 of this year", Mr S. C. Gupta, Chairman and Managing Director of the bank, said.

He was speaking to reporters after the launch of the eighth large corporate branch here . The second quarter results are to be announced on October 30 this year.

Mr Gupta said that PNB had also made some treasury gains in the second quarter from the "good rally" in the bond market. He also said that PNB had in Q2 2006 undertaken some writeback of provisions made in Q4 last year and in Q1 of 2006-07.

Mr Vinod Rai, Special Secretary (Financial Sector) in the Finance Ministry, inaugurated PNB's eighth large corporate branch, which would process loan applications above Rs 25 crore.

The PNB Chairman also said that the overall business turnover of the bank was little over Rs 2,10,00 crore as on September 30 this year. Asked about the possibility of hike in prime lending rate (PLR), Mr Gupta said that the bank has no immediate plans to increase either the lending or the deposit rates. PNB had hiked its PLR in May and August this year from a level of 10.75 per cent to 11.5 per cent.

Tier II capital

On tier-II capital, Mr Gupta said that PNB had already in the first half of the current fiscal raised tier-II capital of about Rs 1,500 crore. "We have no immediate plans to raise further tier-II capital. This would be reviewed in November. Our future course of action would depend on the decision that RBI takes on Basel-II. If RBI postpones the implementation of Basel-II, we may not need additional tier-II capital this year ", he said.

More Stories on : Outlook | Public Sector Banks | Punjab National Bank

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
Tarapore Report II — Little light on deficit, gold

Copyright © 2006, The Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu Business Line