Uttara Bank gained a 108 per cent year-on-year growth in profit to Tk 1.37 billion in the second quarter of FY24, according to its unaudited financial report published on Sunday.
In the first six months of FY24, the lender earned 61 per cent more to Tk 1.94 billion compared to the same period a year ago.
Iftekhar Zaman, company secretary of Uttara Bank, told The FE that the higher earnings was possible because the bank had performed well in every segment.
"We are very serious especially about our non performing loans' recovery. We did well in the recovery of such loans this year."
The bank's cash flow corroborates the statement of Mr Zaman.
According to the earnings disclosure, cash flow from the bank's operations improved.
Last year, cash flow was Tk 4.95 billion in the negative, whereas this year cash flow from operations was Tk 5.45 billion.
According to the Bangladesh Bank, the bank had Tk 17.95 billion of outstanding loans as of December 2023, out of which Tk 0.98 billion was classified as bad loans. That means the NPL ratio is 5.49 per cent of total loans disbursed, which is slightly lower than the average NPL of 5.93 per cent of private commercial banks.
The bank's net profit in FY23 was Tk 3.17 billion and it declared 17.50 per cent cash dividends and 12.50 per cent stock dividends for the year.
Meanwhile, the stock of Uttara Bank rose 0.47 per cent to Tk 21.40 per share on the Dhaka Stock Exchange on Sunday.
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