Trissur: Even as the management and the shareholders of the beleaguered Catholic Syrian Bank (CSB) are raring to embrace a golden era with investments from Fairfax are expected to prop up the bank’s fund base any time now, the nine-decade-old Trissur-based bank seems to have met with yet another miscarriage on its first quarter performance (ending June 30, 2018).
According to analysts who closely follow the CSB performance, the bank may end up (all set to announce) with a net loss not less than Rs15 crore for the quarter ending June 30, 2018.
However, businessbenchmark.news couldn’t confirm the figures nor did it attempt to get a true picture from the management as on no occasion, the management has responded to this portal’s queries.
The loss-making trail of the bank has been a bit long, for except a Rs1.55 crore profit the bank reported for the year ending March 31, 2017, the bank has failed to enthuse its unobtrusive shareholders, who have always been a disciplined lot at the shareholders’ meetings.
However, Fairfax has reportedly acknowledged the ‘good work’ done by the management to improve the overall performance of the bank during the past couple of quarters and that has led to the Canadian company improving the offer price for the CSB shares to Rs140 per share from about Rs95 May last in the process to acquire a majority stake in the bank.
According to sources close to analysts, it was not only on the bottom line, but the bank has suffered on many fronts including the growth in business volume, net advances, etc. “Maybe, CSB has decided to go slow until the Fairfax funds physically reach the bank’s emaciated coffers,” another analyst pointed out.
If the sources can be believed, the Gross NPA of the bank has marginally increased to above 8 per cent as on June 30, 2018. But with the contraction in net advances, the capital adequacy (CAR) of the bank is said to have improved slightly, which is quite natural.
There are unconfirmed reports that the RBI nominee director expressed concern over the losses made at the Treasury during the quarter and advised Treasury Department to place a review note on Treasury performance to the next Board meeting.
