Bank of Ceylon Q1 net up 163%

Bank of Ceylon's March 2011 quarter net profit shot up 163.1 percent to almost 2.2 billion rupees from a year ago.

It is attributed to interest income rising much faster than interest costs.

Basic earnings per share rose 163.1 percent to 1,749 rupees, the bank's interim results filed with the Colombo stock exchange showed.

At bank level the interest margin fell to 3.01 percent from 3.14 percent at the beginning of the year while after-tax return on equity rose to 29.76 percent from 24.01 percent.

Total Bank of Ceylon group revenue rose 18.6 percent to almost 17 billion rupees in the March 2011 quarter.

Interest income rose 21.2 percent to 14.5 billion rupees, while interest expenses rose at a slower 12.1 percent to 8.6 billion rupees enabling net interest income to rise 37.6 percent to 5.8 billion rupees.

Non-interest income rose 4.6 percent to 2.4 billion rupees with a fall of 29.1 percent in foreign exchange income.

General and specific provisioning for bad loans fell while recoveries improved and the bank's value added tax costs also fell, the accounts showed.

Total performing loans grew 5.3 percent to 399 billion rupees from the beginning of the year while total deposits fell half-a-percent to 527 billion rupees.