$887.5M profit for Republic Bank

REPUBLIC BANK Ltd has reported another year of outstanding performance, recording profit before taxation of $887,570 million. Profit after taxation is  $710,121 million as compared to $608,803 million for the comparable period last year, and profit attributable to shareholders has also increased to $663,747 million — an increase of 13.7 per cent over last year. The bank’s chairman and managing director Ronald Harford, announced that a final dividend of $1.30 per share has been declared, bringing the total dividend based on the group’s performance for the year ended September 30 to $2 per share. The dividend will be paid on December 3. According to Harford: “The year 2004 posed unique challenges to the group. Our operations in the Dominican Republic sustained losses of $57.1 million, an increase of $7.6 million over that reported at half year. At the National Commercial Bank of Grenada Ltd, we provided $29 million to cover possible losses emanating from Hurricane Ivan.”

The bank’s earnings per share (EPS) has also risen in 2004 to $4.17, an increase over last year’s EPS of $3.67. The audited financial statements also indicate that the Republic Bank Group’s assets climbed by 10.7 percent to $28.6 billion. During the financial year, the Bank acquired 99.81 percent of Banco Mercantil SA, and 100 percent of Reliance Stockbrokers Ltd. There was also an increase in shareholding in Barbados National Bank and East Caribbean Financial Holding Company Ltd, the parent company of the Bank of St Lucia Ltd. These results have produced a return on assets ratio for the Group of 2.44 percent and a return on equity of 18.93 percent. Share prices have increased by 81.2 percent and shareholder value has increased by $6 billion during 2004.