Public lender, Allahabad Bank posted a significant growth of 55.8% in its net profit to Rs 264.09 crore during the period between January and March, 2009. The net profit of the bank for the same period, a year ago stood at Rs 169.51 crore.

Operating profit of the bank increased by 66% to Rs 614.15 crore against Rs 369.97crore, a year ago.

Although the bank has recorded a high growth in the last quarter of the fiscal but the overall growth for the year ended by March 2009 has moved downwards. The net profit for the entire year fell by 21.15% to Rs 768.60 crore from Rs 974.74 crore in the previous year.

Allahabad Bank's Chairman and Managing Director, K R Kamath said that the significant growth in the net profit of the bank is attributed to 42% rise in net interest income (NIM) and 45% growth in the non-fund interest income. "We have concentrated on core operations. Our letter of credit and bank guarantee commission went up by 25 percent. Processing fee also increased by about 65 percent," said Kamath.

The net interest income of the bank during the quarter under review clocked a growth of 42.54% to Rs 592.50 crore against Rs 415.69 crore in the year ago period. The investment trading profits of the bank also increased to Rs 244.58 crore from Rs 124.36 crore in the corresponding quarter, a year ago.

Meanwhile provisioning made by the bank rose by 74% to Rs 350.06 crore during this period. The bank made provisions of Rs 188 crore for the non-performing assets (NPA) against Rs 70.86 crore provisions made in the previous year.

The net non-performing assets (NPA) of the bank were 0.72% at Rs 419.11 crore in the quarter. Gross NPA were1.81% at 1,078.25 crore, where as the capital adequacy ratio stood at 13.11% as compared to 11.99%, a year ago.

The deposit base grew by 18.65% to Rs 84,971 crore while the gross advances improved by 18.15% to Rs 59,433 crore during the quarter.

In addition for the current fiscal, Kamath said that the bank is going to raise Rs 600 crore in Tier-I capital and Rs 2,300 crore in Tier-II. Further they expect a business growth of 20% in the current fiscal.