[2008-05-21]  StanChart profit up 30p.c
Standard Chartered Bank’s pre-tax profit for the first three months of the year rose 30 percent to Sh1.3 billion. This was against Sh1 billion recorded over the same period in 2007.
The key driver to the profitability was interest earned on loans and advances, which went up from Sh978.9 million in 2007 to Sh1 billion, although the amount of money the company lent to its customers increased marginally from Sh36.8 billion to Sh37.5 billion.
A strong contribution came from investment in government securities that brought in Sh576.3 million from Sh558.3 million. However, during the period under review, the group’s investment in Treasury bills and bonds dropped from Sh24.2 billion to Sh23.1 billion.
Increased deposits
The bank’s expenditure went up by Sh56.2 million to Sh1.2 billion, but its loan loss provision expense declined to Sh33.7 million from Sh108.3 million. Loan loss provision expenditure came down because the bank was able to cut down non-performing loans and advances to Sh1.3 billion from Sh1.9 billion in 2007.
Customer deposits increased from Sh70.9 billion during the first three months of 2007 to Sh73.9 billion during the first quarter of 2008.


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