Uncertainty looms over SBI Cards; stock declines by 10 per cent last week

The shares of SBI Cards & Payment Services Ltd dropped by nearly 10 per cent in the last week, owing to a weak set of results for the September quarter.

SBI Cards is a credit-card division of the banking major State Bank of India. The shares took a negative turn after the company reported a sharp rise in its NPA’s. As per investor presentation, its ratio of stressed loan accounts stood over 16.5 per cent in the September quarter. The press release from the company further added that the total loans under RBI’s restructuring scheme stand at 9 per cent of the total receivables. The total amount under this scheme stood at Rs 2,158 crore.

Its share price reacted negatively to this NPA rise and tanked sharply by 10 per cent. The company in its clarification stated that these loans are over and above the 7.46 per cent proforma gross NPA reported. The company reported that losses and bad debt rose 162 per cent compared to the last year’s Rs 861.7 crore. Its GNPA rose to 4.29 per cent from 2.33 per cent when compared to the numbers reported for the same period last year.

The shares have fallen as much as 10.5 per cent within a week. This is its biggest fall in over six months. On Monday, its stock opened at Rs 809, up by 0.3 per cent on BSE.