ACLEDA Bank recorded a 72.79 percent rise in profits between June and September quarter-on-quarter, a report by the lender said Tuesday, marking a recovery after a fall of 54 percent in the second quarter.

The financial report showed profits after tax hit US$2.32 million, up from $1.34 million in the second quarter.

“In the second quarter, profit was down due to … the non-performing loan rate, but in the third quarter, the NPL rate dropped, so profit is up again,” So Phonnary, executive vice president and chief of operations officer at ACLEDA Bank, said Tuesday.

She added that the NPL ratio dropped to 1.3 percent at the end of September from 1.6 percent at the end of June.

“Some of the NPLs have been recovered – that’s the reason for the rise in profit,” said So Phonnary. “We expect that the NPL ratio will drop to less than 1 percent in the fourth quarter because now everything is going to recover, but just slightly.”

Total profit for the first nine months was $6.578 million, Tuesday’s report showed, meaning it is unlikely that ACLEDA will match the $19.4 million it made over the whole of last year.

“It was the best year for the bank’s profits in 2008, but this year we expect … only around $10 million for the whole year,” said So Phonnary.

No other Cambodian banks disclosed financial results for the third quarter; however, Stephen Higgins, CEO of ANZ Royal, said revenues during

the period marked a major improvement on the first quarter.

“Revenues in the September quarter were up nearly 25 percent on the January quarter, which was probably the low point in terms of performance,” he said, adding that annual revenues were likely “to be up high single digits, to maybe low double digits” year-on-year.

This is “quite a good performance in the context of the severe economic downturn that hit Cambodia late last year”, Higgins added.

ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY NATHAN GREEN