Thursday, February 18, 2010
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Commonwealth Bank has $42 million in net earnings By Inderia Saunders ~ Guardian Business Reporter ~ inderia@nasguard.com: Commonwealth Bank is reporting net income earnings of $42 million for the year ending December 31, 2009, with a record breaking total in assets coming in close to $1.4 billion. The earnings represent a 14.8 percent reduction in net income compared to the same year ago period - a record year for the company - which is something the bank chalks up to the tough economy affecting most in the commercial banking sector. "Commonwealth Bank was able to report solid results for 2009, notwithstanding the global economic crisis and downturn in the local Bahamians economy," read a statement from the bank's Chairman T.B. Donaldson. "The major contributor to the decline in profitability was primarily associated with the continuing conservative approach to credit risk management taken by the Bank." Not dissimilar from other banks, Commonwealth is also reporting a rise in total loan losses in 2009 by 41 percent or $7.6 million. That came as management adopted a "conservative approach" in estimating loan impairment due to the nature of our portfolio. "As a result, balance sheet loan impairment allowances increased by 40 percent," said the statement, "or more than $10 million in 2009." While earnings per share dropped from 44 cents in 2008 to 37 cents in 2009, executives point to the bank still maintaining its position as the largest number of traded shares on the Bahamas International Securities Exchange (BISX). In a recent interview with Guardian Business, Chief Financial Officer Ian Jennings said customers found Commonwealth Bank's shares more easy to trade and indicated that the fourth quarter may have brought the bottoming out of the worse for the bank. "One thing we found is when customers need liquidity they can sell Commonwealth Bank's shares easier than any other share [and] unfortunately, the way BISX works if they want to sell 100 shares at $5 that would change the share price to $5," he explained. "The fourth quarter when you talk about the economy in terms of interpretation we stared to see a form of bottoming out and a slight upturn, but that's obviously the Christmas time and there was an improvement in hotel employment, which tends to be seasonal. "Obviously, we're looking to see what happens in this first quarter of 2010 to see what our expectations are for 2010."
Friday February 05, 2010 |
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