HNB Group Pre-tax profit grows by 28% to Rs. 4.76Bn in H1 2012

Hatton National Bank continued to record strong results in H1 2012, driven by growth in core banking operations, amidst increasing interest rates and restrained credit growth. During the first half of 2012, pre-tax profit of the Bank improved by 30% to Rs. 4.49Bn, compared to Rs.3.44Bn during the corresponding period in 2011, while the post-tax profit improved by 33% to Rs. 3.07Bn.

The Chairperson of HNB,Dr.RaneeJayamaha stated that “the focus on core banking operations has enabled the Bank to post sustainable growth despite the challenging business environment”.

The interest income from loans and advances recorded a growth of 40% during the first 6 months of 2012, compared to 2011 on account of the growth in loans and advances and rising interest rates. In line with the direction issued by the Central Bank to limit the growth in credit, the Bank cautiously expanded its loan book through quality credit, with gross loans and advances increasingby 11%, recording a growth ofRs. 28.8Bnto reachRs. 292.4Bn as at end of June 2012.Interest expenses also increased by52%, to Rs. 11.6Bn due to the growth in deposits and re-pricing of liabilities at higher rates of interest amidst heavy peer competition during the first half of 2012. The deposit base of the Bank grew by Rs. 26.1Bn during the period under review posting a 9% growth to reach Rs. 314.1Bn as at end of June 2012 and the base saw a shift towards high yield ing time deposits due to the prevailing market conditions. Nevertheless, as a result of prudent asset and liability management, the Bank recorded a 26% growth in net interest income during the period.

The non interest income of the Bank also increased to Rs. 2.8bn recording a growth of 31% during the first half of 2012, driven by increase in forex income and other income. Increase of 22% in other income was mainly on account ofhigher commission income while exchange income too recorded a 60% growth over the corresponding period of 2011.

Despite adding 31 new customer centres to the distribution network of the Bank during the 12 months up to 30th June 2012, the Bank was successful in managing its operating expenses during the period.

Although losses on trading securities also increased by Rs. 113.3Mn during the period under review due to unfavourable market conditions, the Bank managed to curtail growth in its total operating expenses to 13% thereby improving the cost to income ratio to 52.8% in comparison to 57.7% as at end of December 2011.

Mr.Rajendra Theagarajah Managing Director/CEO of HNB stated that “the efforts on improving operational efficiency of the Bank has resulted in recording a drop of approx. 5 percentage points in the cost to income ratio during the first half of 2012. The Bank is committed towards streamliningits systems and processes further and is confident of bringing the cost to income ratio below 50% in the medium term”.

Provisions on bad and doubtful debts increased to Rs. 611.7Mn during first half of 2012 against a provision reversal of Rs. 152.6Mn during the corresponding period of 2011.

The provision reversal in 2011 was mainly due to the direction issued by the Central Bank to reduce general provisioning, while the increase in 2012 reflects provisioning on account of a large loan and prudent policies adopted by the Bank with regard to capital provisioning with effect from Q2 2012. The Bank also recovered Rs. 250.1Mn which have been categorised as bad and doubtful, due to its concerted recovery efforts. The gross NPA ratio and the net NPA ratio stood at 4.58% and 2.85% respectively as at end of June 2012.

The capital position of the Bank remained strong with tier I ratio at 11.57% and total capital adequacy ratio at 14.49% as at 30th June 2012. Tier II funding of USD 25Mn raised from the German Development Finance Institution DEG during the 2nd quarter of 2012, further improved the total capital adequacy ratio of the Bank.

The HNB Group recorded a pre-tax profit of Rs. 4.76Bn for the 6 months ended 30th June 2012, up by 28% from Rs. 3.71Bn during the first half of 2011 and a post-tax profit of Rs. 3.32Bn up by 31% from Rs. 2.54Bnduring the corresponding period of 2011. The performance of the insurance subsidiary HNB Assurance PLC as well as the property development subsidiary Sithma Development (Pvt) Ltd contributed towards the growth.

HNB was also recognized as the ‘Best Retail Bank in Sri Lanka for the year 2011’ by the Asian Banker for the fifth consecutive year at the 11th Excellence in Retail Financial Services Awards held in March 2012.