Thursday 12 May 2016

Sri Lanka Com Bank March quarter net up 29-pct

ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka’s Commercial Bank said group net profit for the March 2016 quarter grew by 28.7% to almost 3.3 billion rupees from a year ago.

Earnings per share for the three months were 3.72 rupees, a stock exchange filing said.

The bank, in a statement, attributed the performance to a “notable improvements in business volumes and reduced growth in charges.”

A 101 billion rupee year-on-year growth in its loan book resulted in interest income increasing by 2.4 billion rupees or 15.45% in the quarter to 18 billion rupees at bank level.

“Net interest income for the three months was 8.1 billion rupees, a growth of 12.17%, the lower growth rate due to an 18.27% increase in interest expenses (9.9 billion rupees) consequent to a rise in rates,” the statement said.

Commercial Bank said it achieved a “noteworthy reduction” of 25.17% in total impairment charges to 995 million rupees through a reversal in the provision for individual impairment due to an improvement in Non Performing Loans.

Total assets grew by 45 billion rupees or 5.09% from 31st December 2015 to 924 billion rupees at 31st March 2016.

Loans grew to 537 billion rupees from 508 billion rupees while deposits went up 28.9 billion rupees to 653 billion rupees.

Deposit growth over the three months averaged 9.65 billion rupees per month.

“This is a solid start to the new year, particularly when viewed against the prevailing market conditions,” Commercial Bank Chairman Dharma Dheerasinghe said.

“The Bank’s ability to increase volumes in all key areas of business, thereby minimising the impact of a drop in gains from bond trading, indicates an operational strength that augurs well for the rest of the year.”

Commercial Bank Managing Director Jegan Durairatnam said projections based on the steady growth of its asset base indicated the bank is poised to record significant improvements in all areas in the current year.

Commercial Bank said net fees and commissions improved by 16.19% to 1.5 billion rupees and total other income grew by 17.87% to 1.4 billion, the latter as a result of higher net gains from trading, mark to market gains and exchange gains.

However, other income including gains from bond trading declined by 81.36% or 1.47 billion rupees compared to the previous year’s figure.

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