Mumbai, July 15: The Indian operations of ABN Amro have recorded a sharp spurt in profit and business for the year ended March 31, 1997. Net profit has increased 58 per cent to Rs 38.8 crore compared with Rs 24.5 crore recorded in fiscal 1995-96. Operating profits before provisions and head office costs were up 63 per cent, from Rs 59.3 crore to Rs 96.6 crore.

The increase in profits have occurred in spite of the fact that the bank has recognised a debit of Rs 12.3 crore in the P&L account on account of head office charges.

Simultaneously, this amount has been transferred to a reserve, since the bank intends to retain the sum in India to strengthen its overall capital adequacy ratio. Unlike some other foreign banks, ABN Amro has not revalued any of its fixed assets till now.

The bank's deposits and advances have grown by 93 per cent and 22.3 per cent respectively, in the process correcting the imbalance between customer assets and liabilities that occurred in the previous year. As much as 34 per ent of the bank's advances are accounted for by credit to the priority sector.

The bank's non-performing assets formed 1.15 per cent of its advances, while provisions for non-performing assets aggregate only 0.45 per cent. The provisions for non-performing assets stood at 5.17 crore as of March 31, 1997 compared with the previous year's Rs 6.9 crore There has been a write-back of Rs 5.5 crore on account of depreciation in value of investments ( which amount net of tax has been appropriated towards capital reserves) with the overall provision for depreciation over gross value of investments falling from 3.19 per cent to 0.88 per cent.

The capital to risk assets ratio as on March 31, 1997 is 9.16 per cent.The provisions under taxation was Rs 42.73 crore as compared with the previous year's Rs 21 crore.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.