Seylan Bank reports huge profit growth of 43% during 1H 2015

Seylan Bank said this week it posted a record half-yearly performance with Profit before Income Tax reaching Rs. 2,579 million for the six months ended 30th June 2015.

Post-tax profit reached Rs. 1,740 Million, up 43 per cent compared to the corresponding 6-month period in 2014.

The quarterly ( Q- 2 2015) post tax profit of Rs. 1,089 million was an improvement of 56 per cent compared with Rs. 698 million reported in corresponding three months of last year.

Net Interest income increased from Rs. 5.16 billion to Rs. 5.83 billion, up 13% per cent for the 6 months ended 30th June. Net fee and commission income increased by 13 per cent from Rs. 1,055 million to Rs. 1,191 million with the bank showing a continuation of the solid growth trend recorded in the past few years, according to a bank media release.

During 1H 2015, the Net Advance portfolio grew from Rs. 155 billion to Rs. 162.7 billion, while the Deposit base grew from Rs. 185.9 billion to Rs. 190.5 billion.

“The bank was also able to improve its asset quality through effective recovery and rehabilitating efforts. This enabled the bank to reduce its Gross NPA ( net of IIS) from 7.69% in December 2014 to 6.53% as at end June 2015. The bank has consistently been able to improve its asset quality since 2009 through focused, sustained and effective recovery efforts,” the release said.

The bank, based on its 4 – year Strategic Plan (2012 – 2016) has focused significantly on areas which include Advance/ Deposit growth, Branch Expansion, Customer Service improvement, Staff Development, NPA reduction, Cost Control, New Product Development, IT Infrastructure, Shareholder value, etc. The Strategic Plan also earmarks the opening of 100 libraries in under privileged schools of which 70 such school libraries have been opened by the bank, since 2013.

The bank was also able to improve its asset quality through effective recovery and rehabilitating efforts. This enabled the bank to reduce its Gross NPA (net of IIS) from 7.69% in December 2014 to 6.53% as at end June 2015. The bank has consistently been able to improve its asset quality since 2009 through focused, sustained and effective recovery efforts