Diamond Trust Bank in Uganda Posts 17% Profit for year ended December 31, 2013

Diamond Trust Bank (DTB) reported a 16.6 per cent rise in full-year pretax profit, driven by increased investments in branch network over the past years, expansion of the loan book and customer deposits.

According to the bank’s financial results for the year ended December 31, 2013, the institution’s profit before tax rose to Shs23.55 billion last year, with net loans rising by 21.7 per cent to Shs488.96 billion, while customer deposits rose by 19.7 per cent to Shs633.73 billion.

DTB is the third bank to post profit increase after KCB Uganda, whose net profit grew six fold to Shs6.7 billion, up from Shs1.1 billion and Dfcu whose profit increased to Shs34.8 billion, from Shs29.8 billion in 2012, supported by growth in the respective loan books, an increase in interest income, and effective cost management among other factors.

Although Standard Chartered Uganda, is yet to release its 2013 financial year results, it is predicted that the institution is likely to post a decline in profits.

At group level, Standard Chartered reported a 16.6 per cent dip in its 2013 net profit from $4.79 billion in 2012 to $3.99 billion last year.
The group, which makes 90 per cent of its profits in Asia, the Middle East and Africa, also warned of a “challenging” first half for 2014 due to weak growth in the fourth quarter of 2013.

Despite recovery in loans and advances for some banks, it is said that they are all still reporting an increase in non-performing loans (bad and doubtful debts), which have restrained profit growth.

DTB’s provisions for bad and doubtful debts rose to Shs3.13 billion from Shs288.4 million a year earlier while that for Imperial Bank surged from Shs596 million in 2012 to Shs2.17 billion in 2013.

Registered losses
So far, it is only Imperial Bank which has reported a loss for the year that ended December 31, 2013. According to the published audited financial statements, the bank’s net loss increased to Shs1.9 billion last year, up from Shs1.7 billion in 2012.

The Monitor Newspaper
14-April-2014