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| Sunday, 27 March 2005 |
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Business |
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News Business Features
Editorial
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HNB posts Rs. 976 m after tax profit The Hatton National Bank (HNB) ended 2004 with a very satisfactory performance by posting an after tax profit of Rs. 976 million. This was a marginal decline of 3% compared to 2003. The Bank's core income recorded a satisfactory increase stemming from improvement in net interest, fee based and foreign exchange income. The total operational expenses were also contained with a modest increase of 14% due to aggressive cost management. As expected at the outset, profitability was considerably affected by large provisions made on account of non-performing loans. During the year, the Bank made total provisions amounting to Rs. 1.57 billion for bad and doubtful debts. Sustained efforts to improve the bank's portfolio quality have begun to show visible results. The Bank's NPA ratio improved to 9.7% in 2004 compared to approximately 14% in 2003. the NPA cover as at end 2004 also improved to 55% from 34% as at end 2003. During the year, the Bank raised approximately Rs. 1.4 billion by way of a rights issue, which has contributed to maintaining a capital adequacy ratio of 11.26% well above the statutory minimum of 10%. It is envisaged that the Bank's core capital would be further strengthened during the first half of 2005 by completing the planned GDR issue which was approved by its shareholders last year. While recognising that the tsunami disaster may have a short term impact
on business, the Bank is focused on implementing strategies designed to meet
the core set of challenges identified last year aimed at improving overall
return on assets and enhancing competitiveness. |
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Editorial | Security | Produced by Lake House |
