Sampath Bank records Rs 5.1 b PAT

Sampath Bank continued with the growth momentum in 2012, by posting impressive results in many key areas over the last year, amidst many challenges which included a regulatory credit ceiling and pressure on interest margins, resulting from shifting of funds from low cost to high cost deposits in the high interest rate scenario which prevailed in the market, the bank stated in a media release.

Dhammika Perera

The bank’s pre-tax profit which rose to Rs. 7,265 million in 2012, reflected an increase of Rs. 2,271.4 million or 45.5% over the pre-tax profit of Rs. 4,993.6 million for the year ended 2011. The post–tax profit of the Bank recorded a growth of 51.6% over the same period of last year, rising from Rs. 3,387.2 million in 2011 to Rs. 5,136.4 million in 2012.

Pre-tax profit of the Group, which consists of Sampath Bank and the four subsidiary companies amounted to Rs. 7,517.5 million. for the year ended 2012, a growth of Rs. 2,141.9 million or 39.8%, over the pre-tax profit of Rs. 5,375.5 million for 2011.

Sampath Bank, as the main entity of the Group contributed bulk (96.1%) of the profit. The post-tax profit of the Group amounted to Rs. 5,346.0 million, recording a growth of Rs. 1,640.5 million or 44.3%, over the post-tax profit of Rs. 3,705.4 million for the last year.

The lower PAT growth rate of 44.3% at the group level was mainly due to the drop in profits of the Stock Brokering subsidiary, SC Securities Company.

NII, which is the main source of income from the fund based operations and representing over 50% of the total operating income, rose from Rs 8,943.3 million in 2011 to Rs 11,612.6 million in 2012, recording a significant growth of 29.8%. This significant growth in NII was largely due to the high growth rates recorded by the Bank in key business volumes, namely 21.63% in customer advances, 24.93% in total assets and 24.34% in deposits during the year ended 2012.

It was also possible to improve the Net Interest Margin (NIM), by 0.10% over the previous year, despite the increase in cost of funds, mainly due to timely re-pricing of products and better managing non-interest earning assets.

The Commission and Fee based income of the Bank recorded a growth of Rs. 338.4 million or 18.69% in 2012 over the previous year.

Other income of the bank increased by Rs. 289.75million to Rs. 4,107.8million in 2012 compared to Rs. 3,818.1 million, in 2011. Bulk of the other income comprised of exchange income which rose from Rs. 963.8 million in 2011 to Rs. 2,149.4 million in 2012, recording a growth of Rs.1,185.5 million or 123.0%.