The public sector lender, Dena Bank's net profit declines by over 50 per cent to Rs 126 crore in the fourth quarter of the current financial year. Higher provisioning for bad loans lowered the net profit.

During the fourth quarter, an interest reversal of Rs 62 crore led net interest income to decline by six per cent to Rs 562 crore, while other income was up by 12 per cent.

High cost of funds and low base rate lowered net interest margins (NIM) at 2.80 per cent from 3.21 per cent in the year-ago quarter. Mr. Ashwani Kumar, Chairman and Managing Director of Dena bank said, "We will try to reach NIM at around three per cent".

Provisions to cover bad loans rose 35 per cent to Rs 143 crore. Provisions for depreciation on investment tripled to Rs 98 crore.

As on March 31, 2013, year-on-year total advances jumped 16 per cent at Rs 57,159 crore, while deposits rose 26 per cent at Rs 97,207 crore.

Gross non-performing assets as a percentage of total advances rose to 2.19 per cent from 1.67 per cent in Q4FY12.

For the full-year, net profit increased by a meager seven per cent to Rs 810 crore in FY13 from Rs 803 crore in FY12.