NBL continues to curb its losses

Business Report :
National Bank Ltd (NBL) has continued bleeding although the country’s oldest private bank was somehow able to curb its losses by a half in the just-concluded April-June quarter.
The bank suffered a loss of Tk 298 crore in the three-month period ending on June 30 this year, down 4.18 percent year-on-year.
But its total losses soared 71 percent year-on-year to Tk 1,063 crore in the six months to June this year because of high default loans, according to the bank’s unaudited financial statement.
However, NBL Managing Director and CEO Md Touhidul Alam Khan said the bank made an unaudited monthly profit in June.
“This achievement is particularly significant, as the bank last recorded a monthly profit in December 2021, and since then, the bank has been facing substantial losses month after month,” he said.
“The key factor contributing to this profit is the robust recovery drive from nonperforming loans.”
The bank recovered around Tk 600 crore in cash from default loans over the last six months.
“We are committed to striving for a brighter future for the bank in the days ahead.”
This is the fourth consecutive year of losses for the private bank, which saw changes in its boards several times over the past year with the Sikder family apparently losing control of the financial institution.
NBL could trim its losses by more than half to Tk 1,497 crore in 2023 after posting the highest-ever loss of Tk 3,285 crore in the previous year.
The bank said it could not book interest on loans and advances due to failure to recover funds from the defaulters in the April-June quarter this year.
“Furthermore, the bank incurred higher interest expenses on deposits and borrowings,” it said in a filing on the website of the Dhaka Stock Exchange.
Although the bank was able to reduce its losses per share to Tk 0.93 in the April-June quarter this year from Tk 0.98 a year ago, its half-yearly losses per share rose to Tk 3.31 this year, up from Tk 1.95 previous year.
The bank’s net operating cash flow per share also worsened further during the period.