COLOMBO: Profits at Sri Lanka’s Sampath Bank rose 39 percent to almost 3.5 billion rupees in the June 2017 quarter from a year ago, supported by robust growth in deposits and loans, according to interim accounts filed with the stock exchange. The group reported earnings of 18.72 rupees per share for the quarter. The stock was trading at 281 rupees Friday . Interest income rose 48.4 percent from a year earlier to 20.2 billion rupees, interest expenses rose at a faster 66.9 percent to almost 13 billion rupees with net interest income, representing almost 70% of the bank’s total operating income, up 23.7 percent to 7.2 billion rupees.
Sampath Bank said in a statement the June results were possible due to “the robust growth” recorded in the fund base, in deposits and advances. “The timely re-pricing of asset and liability products and other fund management strategies adopted by the bank too played a pivotal role in achieving the growth in interest income, it said. Fee and commission income rose 21.6 percent to 1.9 billion rupees. The accounts showed a sharp gain in other operating income which rose 151 percent to 1.1 billion. Increases in realized exchange income and dividend income from financial assets have contributed to the increase in other operating income, the statement said.
Collective loan loss provisions rose 1,247 percent to 487 million rupees compared with a reversal of 42 million rupees the year before while individual provisioning fell 50 percent to 204 million rupees. “Impairment provision of already impaired individually significant customers was further increased during the first half of 2017 after considering the current status of the recovery process,” the bank said. Collective impairment charge increased mainly due to the growth in the loan portfolio, along with a marginal increase in the bad loan ratio from 1.61% in December 2016 to 1.77% in June 2017. “However, the Bank’s NPA is still the lowest among industry peers and stands well below its closest competitors. This provides an indication of the quality of the loan book and the unique and efficient recovery measures implemented by the bank.” The bank’s loan book grew 12.3 percent to 512 billion rupees from December 2016 to June 2017 while deposits grew 12.1 percent to 571 billion rupees.
