NCB posted a 16% jump in nine months’ profits & declared a dividend of 50 cents.
Earnings per share ended at $1.88 for the quarter, up from $1.29 in 2015 and for the period to June $4.31 versus $3.48, with full year earnings are set to exceed $6.
The gains were helped by an 11 percent climb in loans and advances to reach $180 billion and a reduction in a number of areas of cost, including a fall in loan loss provisioning to $157 million in the quarter from $472 million in 2015 and for the nine months from $1.4 billion to $904 million.
Customer deposits increased by 18 percent or $38.9 billion over June 2015 to $256 billion.
Total operating income net of interest cost and fee and commission expenses increased to $12.76 billion from $11.68 billion, for the quarter and to $38.4 billion compared to $35.3 billion for the period to June. Net interest income increasing by 8.8 percent, or $1.7 billion, due to growth in the net loans and investments and a reduction in interest expenses driven by a decline in funding costs.
NCB management stated that for the nine months, net fee and commission income increasing by 10.3 percent, or $743 million, mainly due to credit related fees from growth in the loan portfolio, higher volumes of point of sale transactions and unit trust commissions arising from growth in the portfolios. Premium income grew by $388 million, or 6.8 percent, due to higher levels of life insurance and annuity contracts. Gain on foreign currency and investment activities increasing by 10.8 percent, or $305 million to $3.1 billion.
Overall expenses grew slightly from $7.46 billion to $7.64 billion for the quarter and for the nine months by 3.8 percent from $24.1 billion to $26 billion well below the increase in revenues.
NCB declared an interim dividend of 50 cents per ordinary stock unit payable on August 29, to stockholders on record as at August 15. NCB remains an IC Insider Buy Rated stock. In Trading the stock closed at $42.50 today on the Jamaica Stock Exchange for a PE of 7 and on the Trinidad and Tobago Stock Exchange at TT$2.75 or the equivalent of J$52.