V. G. Mathew, Managing Director & CEO of the Bank addressed the call.

Highlights of the call:

South Indian Bank registered a 8% rise in Interest income to Rs 1470.71 crore in the quarter ended March 2017. % rise in interest expenses to Rs 1031.61 crore saw net interest income (NII) rise 17% to Rs 439.10 crore.

Other income fell 1% to Rs 137.71 crore, which took net total income up 12% to Rs 576.81 crore.

Operating expenses grew 2% to Rs 296.01 crore, after which OP rose 26% to Rs 280.80 crore. Provision and contingencies rose 42% to Rs 165.30 crore after which PBT rose 9% to Rs 115.50 crore.

Net profit increased 4% to Rs 75.54 crore.

In FY 2017, South Indian Bank registered a 5% rise in Interest income to Rs 5847.08 crore. 3% rise in interest expenses to Rs 4171.65 crore saw net interest income (NII) rise 11% to Rs 1675.43 crore.

Other income grew 38% to Rs 715.56 crore, which took net total income up 18% to Rs 2390.99 crore.

OP rose 38% to Rs 1214.59 crore. Provision and contingencies rose 66% to Rs 614.37 crore after which PBT rose 18% to Rs 600.22 crore. Net profit increased 18% to Rs 382.50 crore.

Gross NPA stood at Rs 1149.01 crore as of March 2017 quarter against Rs 1786.98 crore in December 2016 quarter and Rs 1562.36 crore as of March 2016 quarter.

In percentage terms, %GNPA stood at 2.45% as of March 2017 quarter against 3.98% in December 2016 quarter and 3.77% as of March 2016 quarter.

Net NPA stood at Rs 674.569 crore as of March 2017 quarter against Rs 1115.66 crore in December 2016 quarter and Rs 1185.26 crore as of March 2016 quarter.

In percentage terms, %NNPA stood at 1.45% as of March 2017 quarter against 2.52% in December 2016 quarter and 2.89% as of March 2016 quarter.

The bank raised Rs 630 crore via rights issue.

It had offered 450709302 equity in the ratio of 1:3.

It will use the funds for supporting business expansion and meet future capital requirements.

With the fresh capital CAR improved 12.40% as per Basel III.

Provision coverage ratio improved to 55.1%.

Total business grew 16% to Rs 112507 crore during the quarter.

In FY 2017 core deposits grew 17%to Rs 54216 crore. Non core deposits grew 29% to Rs 11902 crore. Thus total deposits grew 19% to Rs 66117 crore.

Current deposits grew 39% to Rs 2753 crore. Savings deposits grew 24% to Rs 12994 crore.

Casa increased 26% to Rs 15746 crore. The bank has strategy & road map in place to increase CASA funds.

Term deposits grew 13% to Rs 38498 crore.

NRI deposits grew by 18% to Rs 16821 crore.

Retail advances grew 14% yoy to Rs 29183 in March 2017 quarter.

Retail Loans (excluding gold), Agriculture & SME has grown by 15%.

The company sold stressed assets worth Rs 1776 crore to ARC.

It entered into an agreement with FlyworldMoney Exchange to facilitate remittances by Indian expatriates in Australia. Through this tie-up, NRIs in Australia could enjoy quick and cost-effective remittances to India using the SIB Express facility

The bank introduced Aadhar-based payment in its UPI mobile application-SIB M-Pay. With the latest addition in SIB M-Pay, the fund transfers can be done by just entering the Aadhar number of the beneficiary and the amount would be directly credited. This is a major step in offering simple and efficient payment methods, as the country moves towards a 'Cashless Society'.

Around 17% of the agriculture & SME loans are backed by additional security by way of gold.

Cost to income ratio grew from 48.53%to 49.20% qoq but fell from 56.62% yoy.

On net basis stressed assets stood at Rs 2064 crore in March 2017 quarter against Rs 3633 in December 2016 quarter.

On gross basis stressed assets stood at Rs 1590 crore in March 2017 quarter against Rs 2962 in December 2016 quarter.

Loan growth target for FY 2018 is 20% with focus on retail, SME, Agri, gold and Auto loans.

NIM stood at 2.72%. it was down from 2.73% yoy but remained same as qoq.

NIM is expected to improve from the current 2.72% to 2.85% minimum in FY 2018.

The company has only one account in 5/25 account which is worth Rs 95 crore.

Security receipts (SR) outstanding are Rs 1275 crore.

The fraud account identified earlier was not made NPA 2 quarters back. It was given for forensic audit. There has been recovery of Rs 100 crore from that ac. After this Rs 57.82 crore is remaining with the fraud account. The bank is confident of recovering some more from this going forward.

There was Rs 1148 crore slippage in this quarter. Out of this Rs 600 crore came from structured asset book shown as watch list. More than Rs 300 crore came from the standard restructured book. Remaining was from various sundry accounts.

Credit cost will be lower but relatively higher provisioning will continue for two more quarters

The bank does not have S4A at all.

Total housing loans sanctioned in FY 2017 was Rs 990 and the amount of housing loans sanctioned was Rs 195 crore.

Average housing loan ticket size is Rs 25 lakh.

Staff count is expected to rise 8-10% in FY 2018.

Fresh slippages were Rs 1148 crore.

In near term the target for NIM is 3%.

Around 700 number of corporate book is more than Rs 100 crore.

The bank is granulizing loan portfolio to spread out risk.

It is having cautious approach on large corporate lending.

In Q4, Kerala accounted for 43% of loan book. 23% came from rest of India. 34% came from south India (excluding kerala).

The bank has focused green channel branches to drive faster loan growth to SMEs.

It targets to become banker of choice to SMEs thereby getting other business as well like vehicle finance, etc.