Prime Commercial Bank likely to offer 18 to 20 percent bonus share soon

ShareSansar, September 18:

Prime Commercial Bank Limited (PCBL) is likely to distribute 18 to 20 percent bonus share to its shareholders from the net profit it posted in the last fiscal year 2070/71.

“The external audit report is being finalized. On that basis, we are planning to pledge something around 18 to 20 percent bonus shares to our shareholders this time around,” a highly placed source at the young commercial bank told ShareSansar today.

PCBL can offer this dividend considering impressive 32 percent net profit growth it posted by the end of the fourth quarter of the last fiscal year.

“We could have offered even higher dividend as our profit should have reached around Rs 70 crore,” the PCBL official added. “But it was limited to Rs 63.2 crore as we could not write back around Rs 7 crore by the end of the fourth quarter. We will, however, recover that amount by the end of this first quarter.”

Nevertheless, the dividend likely to be offered by PCBL this time around is far better than what it offered last year. The sixth AGM of the commercial bank last year had endorsed 15 percent dividend, including 10 percent bonus shares, to the shareholders from the net profit it posted in the last fiscal year 2069/70.

Since the final audit report is still being compiled, PCBL is not likely to hold its Annual General Meeting before the festive season of Dashain and Tihar.

By the fourth quarter end, PCBL’s net profit rose by 32 percent as compared to the previous fiscal year 2069/70. The net interest income also reached Rs 1.06 arba, up from Rs 1.04 arba in the previous year, and it managed to write back Rs 13.13 crore from the amount that it had earlier set aside for the provision of possible loss.

The bank also reduced its non-performing loan (NPL) ratio to 1.5 percent from 2.23 percent in the previous year.