SBI Q4 net jumps 46 per cent to Rs2,742 crore

State Bank of India, the country's top lender, today reported a 45.6 per cent rise in its fourth quarter (January-March) 2008-09 profit at Rs2,742 crore ($556 million) against Rs1,883 crore in the same quarter in the previous fiscal (2007-08).

For the year ended 31 March 2009, SBI posted a net profit of Rs9,121 crore, against Rs6,729 crore in the previous financial year – up 35 per cent. Total income for the full fiscal rose 32 per cent to Rs76,479 crore from Rs57,645 crore in the previous fiscal.

On a consolidated basis, SBI has posted a net profit of Rs10,955 crore for the year ended 31 March 2009 against Rs8,961 crore for the year ended 31 March 2008. Consolidated total income for the year increased to Rs1,13,093 crore from Rs90,219 crore in the previous financial year.

The central board of SBI has declared a dividend of Rs29 per share (290 per cent on shares of face value Rs10 each) for the year ended 31 March 2009.
 
The bank, which saw robust demand for loans despite a slowing economy, will raise Rs20,000 crore in 2009-10, preferably by way of a rights issue, in order to fund its growth needs, its chairman, OP Bhatt said in Kolkata.

SBI along with its associate banks control about 25 per cent of the deposit and credit market in the country. SBI gets most of its loanable funds from low-cost savings deposits, on which the bank pays interest rate of around 3.5 per cent.

"We need capital for growth, and there are many ways for raising it. We have various options of raising capital such as such as follow-on-offer, rights issue or preferential issue.

"Our preferred option will be the rights issue," Bhatt said on the sidelines of a function to release the book 1The Evolution of State Bank of India, Vol 4, 1955-1980'.

State Bank of India is the country's largest bank having 11,000 branches across the country and overseas.