New Delhi, July 22 (PTI): Corporation Bank today announced a 17 per cent decline in net profit at Rs 105.51 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2004.

“Despite difficult operating environment, the net profit of the bank stood at Rs 105.51 crore in the first quarter this fiscal compared with Rs 126.43 crore during the same period last fiscal,” Corporation Bank chairman K. Cherian Varghese told reporters after the bank’s board meeting here.

The lower profit was mainly because of the fall in profit on sale of securities from Rs 57 crore to Rs 15 crore. However, Varghese said, the bank’s gross profit increased by 12.41 per cent to Rs 227.86 crore during the quarter.

Deposits of the bank grew by 12 per cent to Rs 23,995 crore. The cost of deposit came down to 4.61 per cent from 6.05 per cent a year ago. The loan advances of the bank increased by 26.30 per cent to Rs 14,487 crore till June this year, Varghese said.

The gross non-performing assets of the bank declined to 5.01 per cent while net NPAs was at 1.8 per cent, he added.

Corporation Bank is targeting a business growth of 18.91 per cent to Rs 44,000 crore in 2004-05 as against Rs 37,000 crore in the last fiscal, Varghese said.

“We are aiming to achieve a 26 per cent growth in advances and 18 per cent in deposits in this fiscal,” he said.

Trading profit, which contributes considerably to the net profit of the bank, was set to decline. So the bank is putting thrust on retail lending portfolio this fiscal to compensate the loss, Varghese said.

The bank aims to cut down its NPA to below 1.5 per cent in this fiscal from 1.80 per cent in the last fiscal.

Corporation Bank has till now established 125 branches in LIC premises and their profitable relationship was growing.

Crompton Greaves

Crompton Greaves Ltd has posted a higher net profit of Rs 17.53 crore in the first quarter ended June 30, 2004 as against Rs 2.73 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year.

The total income for the reporting quarter rose to Rs 428.82 crore from Rs 376.04 crore in April-june 2003.

Gautam Thapar has been appointed as the chairman while K. K. Nohria has resigned from the board of directors.