The bank had posted a net profit of Rs 1,150 crore for the October-December quarter of the previous fiscal.

The increase in the net profit is attributed to decline in provisions against non-performing assets, higher cash recovery and reduction in cost of funds, PNB Chairman and Managing Director K R Kamath told reporters here.

However, operating profit of the bank during the quarter rose marginally by 0.22 per cent at Rs 2,682 crore against Rs 2,676 crore in the same quarter in the previous fiscal, he said.

During the quarter the bank made a cash recovery of Rs 1,499 crore compared to 1,265 in the same quarter of the previous fiscal.

The total provisions, including provisions for bad assets declined to Rs 1,376 crore in the quarter under reporting compared to Rs 1,526 crore in the same quarter a year ago.

The bank's gross NPAs increased to 4.61 per cent at the end of third quarter from 2.42 per cent in December, 2011. Its net NPAs also rose to 2.56 per cent from 1.11 per cent in the same quarter of 2011-12.

The total income of the lender rose to Rs 11,519 crore during the October-December period from Rs 10,435.12 crore in the same period last year.

The net interest margin (NIM) of the bank stood at 3.47 per cent at the end of third quarter of the current fiscal.

The bank is expecting the close the fiscal with the NIM of 3.5 per cent, he said.

Talking about the capital infusion Kamath said, the government has decided to give Rs 1,248 crore to the bank.

This will raise capital adequacy ratio of the bank.

Capital Adequacy Ratio (CAR) of the bank stood at 11.66 per cent at the end of third quarter.

At present, Government of India holds 56.10 per cent stake in the bank.

During the first nine months of 2012-13, the net profit of the bank rose by 4.53 per cent to Rs 3,617 crore from Rs 3,460 crore in the same period a year ago.

The bank reported a 16.45 per cent growth in the total income of at Rs 34,556 crore in the first three quarters, compared to Rs 29,675 crore in the same period last financial year.

The total business as on December 31, 2012 stood at Rs 6,83,098 crore from Rs 6,19,122 crore at end of same quarter of the previous fiscal, registering growth of 10.3 per cent.

Total deposits increased by 8.2 per cent to Rs 3,85,785 crore from Rs 3,56,517 crore at the end of December, 2011.

At the same time, advances of the bank rose to Rs 2,97,313 crore from Rs 2,62,605 crore at the end of third quarter of previous fiscal, an increase of 13.2 per cent.

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