~ Cost to Income improves by 360 bps ~ Group pays Rs 11.8 Bn in Taxes

Hatton National Bank PLC (HNB) reported a Profit After Tax (PAT) of Rs 14.5 Bn at Group level for the nine months to September 2018 recording a growth of 23% YoY, while the Bank’s PAT for the period amounted to Rs 13.1 Bn growing by 21% YoY.

Prudent asset and liability management facilitated a 15.5% YoY growth to Rs 34.2 Bn in Net Interest Income (NII) for the period, despite challenging market conditions.

Net Fee and Commission Income grew moderately by 10.8% YoY to Rs 6.8 Bn in the period to September with Credit Cards, Trade Finance & Remittance businesses contributing to more than 50% of the fee and commission income.

Net losses from trading which reflecting principally the revaluation of forex swaps, reduced significantly by 55% to Rs 1.2 Bn from a higher depreciated rupee and low volumes of swaps compared to the previous year. Other operating income too witnessed a sizable growth of 23% to Rs 3.4 Bn as a result of exchange gains on position revaluations and higher exchange income from forex transactions.

Reflecting on macro and industry conditions which have precipitated delays across the industry in collections; the Bank’s Gross NPA ratio as at the end of the third quarter increased to 3.1% from 2.9% reported in June, albeit remaining below industry norms. The resulting increase in provisioning requirements led to impairment on facilities deemed individually significant rising by 49.0% YoY to just under Rs 1.5 Bn for the period ending September whilst collective impairment charges rose to Rs 2.1 Bn, from Rs 1.3 Bn in the commensurate period of 2017.

The sustained pursuit of the Bank’s initiatives in centralization and digitalization has yielded a continuous improvement in HNB’s Cost to Income ratio, which improved to 36.9% for the nine months ending September 2018, exceeding that recorded during the corresponding period of 2017 by 360 bps. The Total Operating Expenses for the nine months increased to Rs 16.0 Bn with growth being contained at 10.0% YoY.

Bank made a Profit Before Tax (PBT) of Rs 19.3 Bn during the period while the Rs 13.1 Bn PAT generated a Return on Assets (ROA) of 1.76% and Return on Equity (ROE) of 15.57% for the period.

Photo caption: HNB Chairman Dinesh Weerakkody (left) and MD/CEO Jonathan Alles