Andhra Bank today reported 15.2 per cent decline in net profit to Rs 257.09 crore for the third quarter ended December 2012 due to higher provisioning for bad loans.

The state-owned bank had posted a net profit of Rs 303.17 crore in the same period a year ago.

The bank made a provision of Rs 149 crore for non-performing assets (NPA) or bad loans during the quarter under review, against that of Rs 39 crore in the year-ago period. The net NPAs of the bank rose to 2.29 per cent of the total advances as of December 31, from 1.21 per cent a year ago.

In absolute terms, the net NPAs stood at Rs 2,023.32 crore in the December quarter, against Rs 943.27 crore in the year-ago period.

Total income of the bank rose to Rs 3,469.21 crore during October-December period, from Rs 3,158.26 crore over the same quarter a year earlier, the bank said in a statement.

During first nine months, the net profit of the bank declined by 6 per cent to Rs 944.55 crore from Rs 1,005 crore in the year ago period.

Shares of Andhra Bank were trading at Rs 111.90 apiece on the BSE, down 5.53 per cent from the previous close.