NRB Commercial Bank’s profit rises 538%

The NRB Commercial Bank Limited witnessed a stunning 538% growth in its after-tax profit in the first nine months of 2020.

According to the unaudited financial report of the bank, its profit increased by Tk118.85 crore during the January-September period of 2020 compared to the same period in the previous year.

Meanwhile, the trading of the NRB Commercial Bank's shares is scheduled to start under the "N" category in the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) and Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) on Monday.

The bank's trading code is "NRBCBANK," and the company code is 11150 in the DSE, while its scrip ID is 22034 and scrip code is "NRBCBANK" in the CSE.

On 11 November last year, the bank received approval from the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) to raise Tk120 crore capital through an initial public offering (IPO) on a fixed price basis.

The bank will use Tk110 crore of this fund in government securities, Tk6.05 crore for investing in the secondary market and Tk3.95 crore as IPO expenses.

It will issue shares at a face value of Tk10 each. The bank's IPO subscription was completed on 3-9 February this year.

The general investors applied for the bank's shares worth Tk597.77 crore, which was 8.30 times higher than the allocation.

The IPO lottery of the NRB Commercial Bank was held online on 3 March this year to allocate its shares to the general investors.

According to the bank's unaudited financial report, it posted a net profit of Tk140.91 crore in the first nine months of 2020, while its earnings per share (EPS) was Tk2.41.

During the same period in 2019, its net profit was Tk22.06 crore and EPS Tk0.37.

The bank's net profit in the July-September quarter of 2020 was Tk104.45 crore, while its EPS was Tk1.79. During the same period in 2019, the bank had incurred a loss of Tk63,000.

NRB Commercial Bank was established on 20 February, 2013 and started operating on 2 April the same year.

Asian Tiger Capital Partners Investments Limited and AFC Capital Limited were the issue managers of the IPO.

Nationwide, the bank has 75 branches, 42 sub-branches, 23 BRTA collection booths, 13 land registration sub-branches, 229 land registration booths, and 583 agent banking partners.

Its principal activities include banking and other activities related to accepting customer deposits, lending to retail, small and medium-size enterprises as well as corporate customers, foreign trade business, lease financing, project financing, inter-bank borrowing and lending, plus dealing in government securities and equity shares.