Exim Bank FY13 net jumps 10% to Rs 742 cr.

Mumbai: Exim Bank on Thursday reported a 10 percent rise in net profit at Rs 742 crore for the fiscal year 2012-13, up from Rs 675 crore in the previous fiscal as the company focused on diversification and overcame challenging situation in Europe where imports turned negative.

The bank's total business crossed Rs 1,37,774 crore during the reporting year.

"It was a bit of an interesting year and also quite challenging at times. For the first time we witnessed the entire Europe showing an absolute fall in growth with their imports turning negative.

"This had impact on both world trade and us. But despite these turbulences we came out respectably well," Exim Bank Chairman and Managing director TCA Ranganathan told reporters here.

"But domestic companies have withstood that and our project exports have grown over the last year because of a strong diversification into Africa and South Asia. We also think given the nature of our exports, we need to have a stronger focus on potential areas of world demand," he added.

Ranganathan said bank saw a 20 percent growth in its loan assets to Rs 65,563 crore in FY13. Loan approvals were at Rs 40,960 crore, while disbursements rose to Rs 40,635 crore.

Net interest margin of the trade and development finance company stood at 2.14 percent, while gross non-performing assets stood at 2.31 percent and net NPA at 0.47 percent. The bank has a provision cover of 80 percent.

The capital to risk asset ratio was at 15.28 percent in FY13. During the year, the bank received Rs 200 crore capital from the government. During FY13, the bank extended lines of credit (LoCs) aggregating to USD 833.59 million.

Its project export contracts stood at Rs 24,255 crore, which were secured by 47 domestic exporters covering 38 countries during this period, Ranganathan said.

Total borrowings of the bank stood at Rs 64,485 crore in FY13 against Rs 54,655 crore in FY12.

The bank, for the first time, tapped the Australian bond market with a five-year AUD 200 million bond issue in the year. It was also the first domestic entity to issue five-year Singapore dollar-denominated bonds for SGD 250 million.

During the fiscal, the bank also secured a 20-year loan worth 150 million euros from the European Investment Bank to support projects that contribute to climate change mitigation.

Ranganathan said the bank is in talks with Commerce Ministry for long duration loans for pharma companies.

"If pharma companies want long-term loans I will give them loans up to 8-10 years, with long moratoriums because they need to access the market, they need to make investments and the FDA approvals take time.

"We can give them loans for 10 years with a maturity of 30 years. That is one area where we have been persistently working for the last 12 months and now have started to make some progress," he said.


Source : zeenews.india.com