Pratip Chaudhuri in Calcutta on Thursday. Picture by Kishor Roy Chowdhury

Calcutta, May 23: The State Bank of India (SBI) today reported an 18.5 per cent decline in standalone net profit at Rs 3,299 crore for the fourth quarter as a higher provisioning on bad loans and an almost flat total income dragged down its bottomline.

Shares of India’s No.1 bank plunged almost 8 per cent to Rs 2,176.20 as news trickled in, though it did announce a dividend of Rs 41.50 per share.

Standalone total income rose to Rs 36,331 crore during the quarter from Rs 33,959 crore in the corresponding period a year ago.

SBI chairman Pratip Chaudhuri termed the results a “mixed bag”.

Total provisioning for the quarter (excluding tax) stood at Rs 4,181 crore, of which Rs 3,974.15 crore was for sticky loans.

Provisions in the fourth quarter of 2011-12 were at Rs 3,140.41 crore, with Rs 2,836.84 crore made for bad assets.

The gross non performing assets (NPAs) stood at Rs 51,189 crore at the end of March, up from Rs 39,676 crore in the year-ago period.

The gross NPA as a percentage of total loans rose to 4.75 per cent during the quarter from 4.44 per cent in the year-ago period. The net NPA was at 2.10 per cent of loans in the March quarter.

However, quarter-on-quarter gross NPA improved to 4.75 per cent from 5.3 per cent, while the provision coverage ratio increased to 66.58 per cent from 61.49 per cent.

Provision coverage ratio is the ratio of provision held to gross NPA.

For the full fiscal (2012-13), the bank reported a 20 per cent rise in net profit at Rs 14,105 crore. It was higher than Rs 11,707 crore in the 2012-13 fiscal.

On a consolidated basis, the SBI’s net profit rose 17 per cent to Rs 17,916 crore during the 2012-13 fiscal. It was Rs 15,343 crore in the year ago period.

Net profit of five associate banks increased to Rs 3,678 crore in 2012-13 from Rs 3,627 crore in the year-ago period.

“The pressure on asset quality continued though there was a decline as measured in terms of new assets falling into substandard category. Provision requirement in respect of accounts that are already sub-standard or doubtful increased. But we enhanced our provision coverage ratio,” Chaudhuri said.

Among the major accounts, which are giving trouble to the bank, are Suzlon Energy and Sansan Power.

The larger share of the bad loans was to the mid-corporate and SME segments, Chaudhuri added.