Eyeing 'organic growth' in southern states: PNB chief

NEW DELHI: Punjab National Bank (PNB) MD & CEO Ashok Chandra Monday said the state-run lender is looking to grow organically in the southern states and there is no proposal on the table for any acquisition.

"No decision or discussion regarding (any) acquisition has happened at the board level or at the govt level," Chandra told TOI, while responding to a query on fresh acquisition plans.

The bank, which reported record quarterly profits of Rs 5,100 crore during Oct-Dec, up 13% from the year ago, aided by a lower tax payout, said it expects the net interest margin to improve in the coming quarters, and asserted that deposit and advances growth are in line with the overall target. This is in contrast to some of the private players complaining of weak deposit growth.

"For credit growth, we had given a guidance of 11-12% and we are 10.9%. We are going to achieve the guidance for the financial year. We had given a guidance of 9-10% deposit growth and we are at 8.9%. Very consciously, we have kept the deposit growth in this quarter at 8.5%, reason being, we have a credit-deposit ratio of 72%. This quarter it is 74%," Chandra said. He also said PNB is looking to tap refinance from Sidbi and borrow using excess statutory liquidity ratio (SLR) holdings.

Chandra said the bank's gross non-performing assets (NPA) in the March quarter will slide below 3% from just under 3.2% at the end of Dec. He further added that the bank is looking to recover nearly Rs 4,500 crore in the current quarter compared with Rs 4,100 crore in the previous three months. Asked about the impact of US tariffs on the loan book, he said there was "no stress" as exposure was Rs 1,700 crore as far as export loans were concerned.