Three private banks yesterday said their profits soared in the first nine months of the current year powered by increased business.
Premier Bank Limited posted the highest unaudited profit followed by United Commercial Bank (UCB) Limited and Dutch-Bangla Bank Limited (DBBL), according to their separate postings at the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) news board.
However, shares of Premier and UCB declined while that of DBBL edged up marginally yesterday.
Premier said its July-September earnings in 2021 increased 27 per cent year-on-year to around Tk 68 crore from Tk 53 crore.
The lender’s earnings per share (EPS) stood at Tk 0.65 in the third quarter of the current year from Tk 0.51 a year earlier.
However, a comparison of the first nine months showed that Premier logged a 59 per cent growth in profits this year from that of a year ago.
The bank registered Tk 232 crore in profits in the January-September period of 2021 from Tk 146 crore in the previous year, said the lender in the DSE disclosure after its board meeting.
Mohammad Akram Hossain, company secretary, said three factors — good business from stock market, higher income from commissions and reduced interest payment to depositors owing to low interest rate — propelled the profits.
UCB said its profit declined 3 per cent year-on-year to around Tk 86 crore in the July-September period of 2021.
Its EPS dropped to Tk 0.67 in the July-September period from Tk 0.69 a year ago, according to its DSE disclosure.
Yet the bank, which has been operating for more than three and a half decades, recorded a 20 per cent growth in profits to around Tk 211 crore in the first nine months (January-September) of 2021 from that of a year earlier.
Its EPS rose to Tk 1.65 in the nine months from Tk 1.38 in the same period a year ago.
Shares of UCB closed at Tk 15.7 yesterday, down 1.2 per cent from the previous day.
Faruk Ahammad, chief financial officer, said UCB has four subsidiaries, of which three have already made a profit up until September 2021.
Relatively a new subsidiary, mobile financial service Upay, launched in the second quarter of this year, incurred a loss in its initial year of operation. It resulted in the slight decrease in EPS, he said.
DBBL maintained the uptick in its profits for both periods.
The private bank’s earnings soared 14 per cent year-on-year to nearly Tk 365 crore in the January-September period of the current year from Tk 346 crore.
DBBL said its EPS rose to Tk 6.25 in the January-September period of the current year, up from Tk 5.47 in the same period a year ago.
The third quarter earnings of the bank grew 31 per cent year-on-year to nearly Tk 170 crore from Tk 130 crore in the July-September period of the previous year. Its EPS in the third quarter surged.
DBBL’s shares rose 2.8 per cent to Tk 79.2 yesterday from the previous day.
