Following 90 per cent subscription of its Employee Stock Purchase Scheme (ESPS), the Punjab National Bank (PNB) managed to raise approx. Rs 500 crore. The equity shares were offered to eligible staff at a discounted rate of Rs 53.95 per unit, and the employees clearly responded well.
This is the first time that a bank has been able to claim 90 per cent subscription under ESPS, with the majority of the subscribers being staff from Chennai, Bhopal and Meerut.
While the Bank had claimed a profit of Rs 560 crore in the quarter ending September last year, it suffered a loss of Rs 4,532 crore this year due to drastic increase in provisioning.
PNB raised its provisions to Rs 9,757 crore from Rs 5,758 crore in the previous quarter, of which it allotted Rs 7,773 crore towards bad loans, as compared to Rs 4,982 crore in the last quarter.
The provision coverage ratio also increased from 59 per cent last year to 67 per cent in September, 2018.
It posted a loss of Rs 13,416.91 crore following the Nirav Modi scam when it suffered the biggest setback ever by any domestic lender.
PNB’s capital adequacy ratio was reported to be 10.08 per cent at the end of the September quarter as against 9.62 per cent in the last quarter.