Sri Lanka NTB annual profit up 58-pct

Feb 21, 2011 (LBO) - Sri Lanka's Nations Trust Bank's (NTB) net profit for the 2010 financial year rose 58 percent to just over a billion rupees from a year ago as interest margins grew, a stock exchange filing said.

Diluted earnings per share for the financial year ending December 31, 2010 were 5.28 rupees compared with 4.09 rupees the previous year.

NTB group's interest income fell 16 percent to 10 billion rupees while interest expenses fell faster, at 34 percent, to 5.5 billion rupees, enabling net interest income to rise 23 percent to 4.6 billion rupees in 2010.

At bank level, NTB's interest margin rose to 5.42 percent in 2010 from 4.85 percent in 2009 with return on equity rising to 18.30 percent from 12.59 percent during the year.

In the December 2010 quarter NTB group profit rose 30 percent to 236 million rupees from a year ago.

Interest income fell 11 percent to 2.5 billion rupees while interest expenses fell faster, at 23 percent, to 1.3 billion rupees, enabling net interest income to rise nine percent to 1.1 billion rupees in the quarter.

Fee income in the quarter rose 33 percent to 492 million rupees with foreign exchange gains up 141 percent to 122 million rupees and other income up 16 percent to 371 million rupees.

In the 2010 financial year provision for bad loans fell 75 percent to 203 million rupees.

Fee income rose seven percent to 2.1 billion rupees in the year with foreign exchange gains of 315 million rupees against a forex loss of 539 million rupees the previous year.

Other income fell 28 percent to 1.8 billion rupees.

Total performing loans rose 33 percent to 44.6 billion rupees as at December 31, 2010 from the previous year while time deposits grew two percent to 34.6 billion rupees.

source - www.lbo.lk