Billion Mark

May 08, 2007 (LBO) – Commercial Bank has reported group net profit growth of 37 percent to 1,028.8 million rupees for the first quarter ended March, with revenue rising 41 percent to 7,461.1 million rupees. In results released to the Colombo Stock Exchange, the bank said the profit gain was helped by a deferred taxation reversal of 184.3 million rupees which limited tax growth to 45.3 million rupees.

It was the first time that after tax profit topped a billion rupees in a quarter.

Ranjith Samaranayake, Commercial Bank’s Senior Deputy General Manager Finance and Planning, said net interest income rose 49 percent to 2.4 billion rupees in the quarter.

"Judicious management of the interest spread on fund-based operations also contributed to the growth in net interest income," the bank statement quoted Samaranayake as saying.

Foreign exchange income rose 20.74 percent (to 380 million rupees) mainly due to higher translation gains in 2007 as a result of the depreciation of the rupee by 6.58 per cent against the US dollar during the year ended March 31, 2007.

Commercial Bank also said its net provisions for bad loans doubled to 71.1 million rupees mainly due to a general provisio