Interest Trends

Jan 13, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka's LB Finance said net profit for the December quarter rose 39 percent to 84 million rupees from a year ago, with interest income almost doubling. Total income fell 11 percent to just over a billion rupees, according to results released by the firm, the first listed company to release its results for the quarter ended December 31, 2008.

Net interest income rose 98 percent to 628 million rupees in the December quarter.

In the nine months to December 2008, net profits doubled to 242 million rupees.

Analysts said the firm's net interest margin widened slightly to 9.56 percent in the nine months to December 2008 from a year ago.

LB Finance also reported a sharp fall in provisioning for doubtful loans in the nine months period, down 85 percent to 15 million rupees compared with the same period a year ago.

The company had total assets of 14.4 billion rupees as at December 31, 2008 compared with 10.7 billion as at March 31, 2008.

It had total liabilities of 13.2 billion rupees as at December 31, 2008 compared with 9.8 billion as at March 31, 2008.