HNB Group PAT surpasses Rs 10 billion

Hatton National Bank recorded another year of outstanding performance with Group Profit After Tax (PAT) increasing by 29% to Rs 10.1 billion while the Bank's PAT recorded a growth of 28% amounting to over Rs 9 billion.

The Chairperson, Dr Ranee Jayamaha said, "We are pleased that the Bank has once again demonstrated resilience and posted an all-round exceptional performance notwithstanding the challenging global environment, adverse impact on the pawning portfolio and a substantial reduction in interest margins."These were amply compensated by the proactive strategies adopted by the Bank in driving fee income,aggressive recovery action, improved productivity and cost management. In pursuance of our goal of reaching a Rs 1 trillion balance sheet, the Group successfully crossed the Rs 600 billion mark in assets during the year," she said.

"The Bank's performance has steadily improved over the past three years recording impressive growth in deposits and advances," Jayamaha said.The strong performance for 2014 enabled the Bank to post healthy improvements in key performance indicators. Accordingly, ROA improved to 1.7% compared to 1.5% in 2013, while the ROE of the Bank improved to 16% compared to 14.3% for the previous year.

The Bank continued to remain as one of the best capitalised banks in the industry with tier I capital adequacy ratio at 12.1% and total capital adequacy ratio at 14.8%.Dr Jayamaha said,

"Healthy capital ratios recorded continuously are testament to the safety and soundness of the Bank. Along with an interim dividend of Rs 1.50 per share the Bank has proposed a final dividend of Rs 7.00 per share which would result in a total dividend of Rs 8.50 for 2014. Accordingly, HNB is one of the best dividend payers to its shareholders". The market capitalisation of HNB exceeded Rs 62 billion as at end of 2014 from Rs 47 billion in 2013, with the voting share price improving from Rs 147 in 2013 to Rs 194.90 as at end 2014.