Commercial Bank posts robust 9-month performance

The Commercial Bank Group comprising the country's benchmark private sector bank, its subsidiaries and associate companies has continued its robust financial performance in the first nine months of 2006, and reported noteworthy increases in profits and income.

The Group reported a pre-tax profit of Rs 4.05 billion for the first nine months of 2006 as against Rs 2.60 billion earned during the corresponding period last year, a growth of Rs 1.45 billion or 55.57 per cent. The post-tax profits of the Group rose to Rs 2.37 billion as at September 30, 2006 from Rs 1.7 billion in the first nine months of 2005, an increase of Rs 671.4 million or 39.46 per cent, a statement said.

Commercial Bank's Senior Deputy General Manager (Finance and Planning) Ranjith Samaranayake said this significant profit growth was partly due to profit from the sale of part of the investments in the shares of DFCC Bank in the second quarter of 2006 and recognition of mark to market gains, which arose as a result of transferring a further portion of shares to the trading portfolio of the Bank during the third quarter of 2006.

Discounting the profit from these transactions, which amounted to Rs 389.4 million, the normal pre-tax profit of the Group for the period under review amounted to Rs 3.66 billion as against Rs 2.60 billion reported for thecorresponding period last year. This was a growth of Rs 1.06 billion or 40.62 per cent.

The improvement in normal profits of the Group was facilitated by an increase of 26.94 per cent or Rs 1.15 billion in net interest income from Rs. 4.27 billion in the corresponding period in 2005 to Rs 5.42 billion as at September 30, 2006. The exchange profit of the Group rose by Rs 589.4 million to Rs 977.5 million.