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EXIM Bank could not reap benefits from the increase in interest rates for having to keep higher provision against investments, which cut profit by more than 9 per cent year-on-year in 2023.
The profit of the Export Import Bank stood at 3.37 billion for 2023.
"This year, our profit decreased because we had to keep higher provision against our investments. But we believe we will recover soon," said company secretary Md. Monirul Islam.
The 2023 financial statement of EXIM Bank is not yet available.
From the nine-month results for the period until September 2023, it was found to have kept provision nearly as much as 10 per cent of its total operating income.
As of December 2023, the total volume of bad loans of EXIM Bank was Tk 16.29 billion, which was 3.47 per cent of its entire outstanding loans, according to the Bangladesh Bank. The ratio indicated quite low amount of non-performing loans, when compared to the 21 per cent industry average of private commercial banks.
The bank's earnings per share (EPS) stood at Tk 2.33 in 2023, down from Tk 2.57 a year before.
After the earnings disclosure, the stock of EXIM Bank went up 3.3 per cent to Tk 9.40 per share on the Dhaka bourse on Tuesday.
The stock's price-to-earnings ratio is 4.03, according to the DSE, far less than its peers'.
The P/E ratio means how much investors have paid for every Tk 1 income of the company in a particular year.
Based on the profit, the bank board declared 10 per cent cash dividends for 2023 same as it disbursed for 2022.
To get shareholders' approve of the dividends and audited financial statement, the bank will hold an annual general meeting on June 24, with the record date set for May 26.
Having listed on the stock exchange in 2004, EXIM Bank recently decided to acquire crisis-ridden Padma Bank.