Record profitability for Q3 2018, says NDB
View(s):Sri Lanka’s National Development Bank PLC (NDB) said this week it had posted an “impressive financial performance” for the nine months ending September 2018, with a record post-tax profit of Rs. 4 billion.
Profit attributable to shareholders (PAS) showed a growth of 42 per cent compared with the prior period amidst challenging market conditions. “Strong growth was recorded in the balance sheet along with improvement in net interest margin (NIM), cost to income ratio (CIR) and returns to shareholders,” the bank said in a media release.
The bank recorded an operating profit before tax on financial services of Rs. 7.1 billion, up by 25 per cent over the comparative period of 2017.
NDB Group CEO Dimantha Seneviratne said that the recorded results are the clear output of the focused strategy the bank embarked in 2017 spanning up to year 2020. “The Group CEO stated with confidence that NDB is on a sound footing to achieve the medium term goals of the strategy and bring prosperity to its valued customer base and all stakeholders,” the statement added.
Net interest income (NII) continued to grow in Q3 amidst marked industry challenges, with a 39 per cent growth in NII up to Rs.10.6 billion. Interest income grew by 17 per cent whereas the interest expenses increased only by 8 per cent directly benefitting from the sound balance sheet management and ALCO strategies.
Reflecting the industry-wide trend of rising non-performing loans, the impairment charges for loans and other losses of the bank for Q3 2018 increased to Rs.2.4 billion, compared to Rs. 872 million for the corresponding period of the prior year. Individual impairment of Rs. 1.5 billion for the period represented precautionary provisions made by the bank for selective individually significant facilities, on a prudent basis, given the challenging economic environment.
Customer deposits recorded exceptional growth of 20 per cent over 2017 to reach Rs.329 billion, which translated to a quantum increase of Rs. 55 billion whilst the year-on-year growth was Rs. 73 billion. Of this growth, over Rs.12 billion of growth was recorded in the low cost current and savings deposits (CASA).
The growth in the loan book which equated the growth in customer deposits helped the bank improve its Loans to Deposits Ratio (LDR) to 102 per cent, the best recorded so far by the bank since converting to a fully-fledged commercial bank from the development banking model.