Bank of Maharashtra conducted a conference call on 15 October 2024 to discuss the financial results for the quarter ended September 2024. Nidhu Saxsena, MD & CEO of the company addressed the call:

Highlights:

The bank has presented very good set of encouraging numbers. The focus was on deposits which has exhibited good results.

The business volume of the bank has increased by 17% driven by 19% surge in the advances. 

The deposit growth has also accelerated to 15% from single digit growth a quarter ago.

The CASA deposits increased 12% end September 2024. The bank has added Rs 15000 crore of CASA deposits, while the CASA ratio continued to be in line with the guidance of around 50%.

Within the loan book, the retail on book has surged 23%, agriculture 34% mainly driven by the gold loans and MSME 25%. The corporate loan book has also increased 9% end September 2024.

The bank has recorded strong 60% growth in the gold loan book end September 2024. The bank sees lot of scope for growth in the gold loan book.

The bank has continued to maintain strong asset quality and reduced gross NPA ratio to 1.84% from 2.19% last year. The NNPA ratio has remained healthy at 0.2% end September 2024.

The bank has recorded cash recoveries of Rs 120 crore, upgradations of Rs 100 crore and recoveries in written off accounts of Rs 255 crore in Q2FY2025.

The provision coverage ratio is strong at 98.3% end September 2024.

The CD ratio remains within the desirable level of 78.72% end September 2024.

The bank has recorded improvement in the net interest margin to 3.98% in Q2FY2025 from 3.97% in Q1FY2025 and 3.92% in Q2FY2024.

Bank is adequately capitalized.

The bank expect improving trend to continue for its performance in Q3 and Q4 of the current financial year.

Against the existing NIM of 3.98%, the bank is maintaining the conservative NIM guidance of 3.75-3.85%, as 37% of the loan book of the bank is linked to the repo rate and any reduction in the repo rate would lead to repricing of loan book.

The bank is also guiding at RoA of 1.6-1.65% against the existing RoA of 1.74%.

The gold loan book of the bank has touched Rs 13000 crore and the bank aims to raise it to Rs 15000 crore by the year end.

The share of remain loan segment is expected to be at 60% +/ - 2%.

The co-lending loan of the bank has touched Rs 2200 crore end September 2024.

The bank has planned to add 1000 branches in next 5 years. The bank want to add 200 to 220 new branches in next 12 months.

The bank has requested regulator for grant of gift city branch licence.

The unsecured loan book is mainly towards the salaried customers having salary accounts with the bank, so the bank is able to deduct EMI first. This unsecured loan book stands at Rs 3350 crore with NPA of mere Rs 15 crore.

The bank is guiding at business growth of 16%, advances growth of 18 to 20% and deposit growth of 12 to 15% for FY2025.

The banks is witnessing recovery rate of 30-35% in the NCLT accounts.

The bank aims to maintain cost to income ratio below 40%.