Financial News from Sri Lanka: To close the quarter with a bottom line of Rs 162.2 million, the Amãna Bank achieved a commendable 29% YoY growth in Profit After Tax for Q2 compared to Rs 125.5 million recorded in the corresponding period of 2018. Despite the higher tax regime applicable to the banking industry, which accounted for 60 percent of the operating profits of the banks, Profit After Tax reached Rs 288.8 million in the first half of 2019 equivalent to Rs 288.3 million in 2018 H1 Profit After Tax.
Profit Before Tax grew by 33 percent from Rs 174.3 million reported in Q2 of 2018 to reach Rs 231.8 million. This bottom-line accomplishment is due to the continued growth of the Bank in its core banking activities, where Financing Income for Q2 recorded a 19% YoY growth to Rs 1.9 billion, resulting in a 20% YoY H1 growth to Rs 3.8 billion. Net financial income for Q2 and H1 grew by 5% to 831.6 million Rs and 7% to 1.7 billion Rs respectively. Net operating income grew by 24% in Q2 to Rs 1.1 billion, while it grew by 17% in Q1 to Rs 2 billion. Operating profit before VAT, NBT and debt repayment levy grew by 37% in Q2 and 17% in H1 respectively to Rs 408.4 million and Rs 723.8 million for the same periods.
The Bank succeeded in overcoming the challenging market conditions by increasing its customer deposits by 12% to close at Rs 69 billion for the first six months, while the Advances portfolio grew by 7% to close at Rs 56.5 billion during the same period. As a result, Rs 5.3 billion increased the Bank’s total assets to close the quarter at Rs 82.6 billion.
Because of the current market context, the overall banking industry was challenged by high non-performing advances, Amãna Bank’s Gross Non Performing Advances and Net Non Performing Advances were up 3.58% and 1.45% respectively, well within industry standards. The regulatory capital ratios remained sound as the Bank closed the quarter with a 17.1 percent total capital ratio. The Return on Equity of the Bank increased from 4.6% percent reported in December 2018 to 4.8% percent.
Commenting on its first-half results, Chief Executive Officer Mohamed Azmeer of the Bank said, “Despite difficult market circumstances that have tested company resilience across all sectors and industries, I am happy to witness the continuous profit momentum. Such resilience and profit strength would allow us to continuously reward all of our stakeholders, to whom we are highly grateful. “Amãna Bank PLC is a stand-alone organization, licensed by Sri Lanka’s Central Bank and listed on the Colombo Stock Exchange, with Jeddah-based IDB Group as the main shareholder with a 29.97% stake in the Bank. The IDB Group is an AAA-rated multilateral financial institution for development with an authorized capital base of over USD 150 billion and a 57-country membership. In June 2019, Fitch Ratings affirmed BB(lka)’s National Long Term Rating of Amãna Bank with a Positive perspective. Amãna Bank has no subsidiaries, partners or affiliates representing the Bank.
