National Bank incurs loss Tk627cr in the first half of 2023
National Bank Limited incurred a loss of Tk627 crore in the first half of this year, which is 261% higher than the same period in the previous year.
The bank approved its half yearly financial statement at a board meeting held on Tuesday.
During the January-June period, its consolidated loss per share was Tk1.95, which was Tk0.54 a year ago.
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In the second quarter (April-June), its consolidated loss per share jumped 172% to Tk0.98, compared to the same period a year earlier.
At the end of June this year, its net asset value per share was Tk10.94, which was 15% lower than the last year.
In the statement, the bank said due to liquidity crunch in the market and the ongoing inflation in the world economy including in Bangladesh, borrowers could not repay the instalments in time and the loans have become classified.
As a result of the situation, the bank was unable to obtain interests on these loans as income, leading to a significant decrease in profitability, it added.
Its consolidated loss was Tk3,260 crore in 2022 as its borrowers could not repay their instalments in time.
In its price sensitive financial statement, the bank said its earnings per share (EPS) was Tk10.13 negative in 2022. Its net profit was Tk38 crore and EPS was Tk0.12 in 2021.
Due to the high loss, the bank failed to pay any dividend to its shareholders for the year 2022. Earlier, in 2021, it did not pay any dividend to the shareholders.
Besides, it suffered a severe net operating cash crisis as it reported a net operating cash flow per share of Tk17.21 negative in the last year.
Its shares closed at Tk8.30 each on Tuesday at the Dhaka Stock Exchange.
