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Tenfold increase in Nations Trust profits

Nations Trust Bank (NTB) has posted Rs 249 million as profit after tax for the nine months ended September 30. "This is a 10-fold increase from the Rs 24 million recorded for the corresponding period in 2002," said NTB's CEO Maxi Prelis.

He said that while the core banking business showed strong growth, the total profit was boosted by exceptional performance from treasury and bond trading activities. Total business turnover grew to Rs 1.6 billion compared with Rs 0.6 billion in the first nine months of 2002, while deposits increased by 65 per cent to reach Rs 6.4 billion, and advances increased by 67 per cent to Rs 6.4 billion.

Prelis confirmed that the total assets of the Group, including that of its fully owned subsidiary Waldock Mackenzie Ltd, were Rs 20.9 billion, an increase of 73 per cent.

The rights issue of the bank that was concluded in July/August at a price of Rs 13 per share, increased the shareholders' funds of the group to Rs 1.3 billion, while the Tier II capital adequacy ratio of the bank as at the end of September too rose to 14.6 per cent.

Prelis said the price of the bank's shares at the Colombo Stock Exchange has increased substantially since the rights issue. The Group also had a favourable Non-Performing Loans ratio of five per cent.

"NTB has pursued an aggressive, but selective growth strategy since inception and over the long-term expects to evolve into an innovative and favourably differentiated player in the local banking scene, in short as a 'total financial service provider' with particular focus on retail banking," said Prelis.

NTB holds the local franchise for American Express cards and American Express foreign exchange services.

The American Express credit card operations launched two months ago have already made significant progress in the market.

NTB's manned delivery points now stand at 21 branches and service counters. "We intend to continue to expand our branch network in selected locations where our target market is predominant, as well as encourage customer usage of ATMs, telebanking and Internet channels," said Prelis.

NTB is promoted by two leading corporates in Sri Lanka, the John Keells Group and the Central Finance Group, together with the International Finance Corporation.

Fitch Ratings Lanka Ltd has assigned an SL A- rating, for Implied Long-Term Unsecured Senior Debt of the bank.

"The rating denotes a low expectation of credit risk, with the capacity for timely payment of financial commitments being considered strong," said Prelis.

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