Bank of Baroda's exposure to GoFirst around Rs 1,300 crore: Sanjiv Chadha

Bank of Baroda's exposure to GoFirst is around Rs 1,300 crore, said Sanjiv Chadha, MD and CEO of the lender in a conversation with CNBC-TV18. In the fourth quarter of FY23, the bank provided Rs 500 crore against its exposure to GoFirst, Chadha said a day after the lender declared earnings. This means any potential downside has been fully taken into account and the bank is completely protected as far as this account is concerned.

Notably, GoFirst has sought bankruptcy protection after the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) admitted its plea for voluntary insolvency.

Bank of Baroda, meanwhile, reported 168 percent in net profit at Rs 4,775 crore for the fourth quarter of FY23, as against CNBC-TV18's poll of Rs 4,029.9 crore. In fourth quarter of FY22, the lender posted a net profit of Rs 1,779 crore. The bank reported net interest income (NII) at Rs 11,525 crore, versus CNBC-TV18 poll of Rs 11,269.2 crore.

Commenting on the same, Chadha said that the earnings trajectory will continue at this level, despite expected credit loss (ECL) expectations. He added that international business return on assets (ROA) is better than domestic business and pricing power has returned in the corporate segment.

Going forward, he is expecting credit cost to be stable at 1 percent.

"Retail is now at 25 percent of the loan book. We can increase the retail book to 33-35 percent of loans. The life insurance business has filed DRHP and now we intend to list credit cards business as well," Chadha told CNBC-TV18.

Meanwhile, the lender's total revenue stood at Rs 29,322.74 crore in the March 2023 quarter against Rs 20,695.90 crore in the same period last year.

The bank's global advances registered a strong YoY growth of 18.5 percent in Q4FY23 led by robust retail loan book growth. Bank’s organic retail advances grew by 26.8 percent, driven by growth in high focus areas such as auto loan (24.4 percent), home loan (19.5 percent), personal loan (101.5 percent), mortgage loan (18.0 percent) and education loan (21.8 percent).

Bank achieved a total business of Rs 21,73,236 crore as of March 31, 2023, registering a growth of 16.6 percent YoY.