Companies

National Bank, Diamond Trust report strong Q1 numbers

Diamond Trust Bank increased first-quarter pretax profit by 9.5 per cent year-on-year, helped by a growth in lending net interest income.

Kenyan banks continue to report strong first quarter earnings so far, buoyed by rising lending on the back of steady economic growth.

Diamond Trust, which focuses on small and medium-sized businesses, said pretax profit rose to Sh2.27 billion in the three months to end-March.

The bank, which has subsidiaries in Burundi, Tanzania and Uganda, said net loans and advances to customers increased by 26 per cent to Sh144.87 billion.

Net interest income for the period also rose 9.1 per cent to Sh3.29 billion. Earnings per share rose to Sh5.56, from Sh5.53 in the same period last year.

Meanwhile, National Bank of Kenya posted a 20 per cent rise in first-quarter pretax profit to Sh707 million, also helped by higher interest income.

The bank has been going through a revamp to cut overall costs as part of an effort to recover its position as one of Kenya’s top three lenders, a position it last held in 1996 before poor management hurt its performance.

The bank said in a statement on Thursday its net interest income rose by a fifth to Sh1.86 billion in the period to end-March.

Net loans and advances to customers rose 48 per cent to Sh70 billion in the period from a year ago, it said.

Earnings per share advanced to Sh1.77 from Sh1.47 last year, the bank said.

The lender said earlier this year it planned to raise Sh13 billion with a cash call to support more lending and fund operations in new markets.