Financial Times

NTB shows good growth in third Quarter, 2005/06
Nations Trust Bank last week announced operating profits of Rs 168.9 million, for the nine months ended September 2005, up from Rs.123.4 million in the same period last year.

Profit after Tax and VAT for the nine months to September was Rs. 74.4 million, up 24 % from Rs 60.2 million last year. Tax rates this year were higher due to the legislative revisions introduced at the end of 2004.

Net interest income increased to Rs 651.5 million (55% increase) from Rs 420.9 million, while fees and other income increased from Rs. 331.3 million to Rs 420.8 million (27% increase). Total Net Income grew by 43%.

The increased revenue was a result of pleasing growth in Balance Sheet volumes, a very aggressive customer acquisition programme, gratifying improvement in credit card revenues and the continued focused implementation of the bank’s strategy to achieve greater than market growth.

Compared to the end of 2004, Customer Deposits increased from Rs 10.4 billion to Rs 12.9 billion (24%) and Loans and Advances (inclusive of Corporate Debt Securities) increased from Rs 11.7 billion to Rs 14.5 billion an increase of 24 %.

Corporate Debt Securities of Rs 2.9 billion were backed by Repurchase Agreements amounting to Rs 1.6 billion as at 30th September 2005. Operating Costs (excluding loan loss provisioning) increased from Rs 587.2 million to Rs 772.9 million (32%) mainly due to the additional costs of branch expansion, system upgrade and other costs associated with supporting increasing volumes.

Loan Loss provisions were much higher than last year mainly due to a maturing Credit Card portfolio. It is expected that provisions in the last quarter will be much lower. The Bank also continues to follows a general provisioning policy of 1% of all advances and has made provision accordingly. Chief Executive Officer NTB, Zulfiqar Zavahir said “we are quite satisfied with the progress that we have made so far, in building a Bank which is now showing a consistent flow of income from it’s core business.

The merger with MLL will strengthen the Bank further and we can look forward to a bright future.”

Back to Business