Mainboard-listed commercial bank ACLEDA Bank Plc’s net profit for the first quarter ended March 31 fell 20 per cent to $35.36 million from $44.10 million last year as a result of widening net impairment loss, interest expense, and general and administrative expenses.
However, net interest income, a measure of a bank’s financial performance, rose 7.83 per cent to $109.25 million compared to $101.34 million in the corresponding period last year, according to a filing with Cambodia Securities Exchange.
Revenue climbed 11.90 per cent to $174.88 million in the first quarter from $156.27 million in 2021, thanks to interest income, which accounted for nearly 90 per cent of the revenue.
ACLEDA chairman Chhay Soeun said the bank is expected to do better in 2022, given its heavy investment in digital infrastructure and the construction of a large high security data centre.
He said the disaster recovery data centre will help data storage in a highly protected environment.
“With the digital infrastructure and upgraded products and services, the bank is confident of facing future challenges,” Soeun said.
In addition, the recovery of the manufacturing sector on the back of exports growth and the expansion of agriculture commodity exports are expected to augur well for ACLEDA as the bulk of borrowers are from agri-related businesses.
Meanwhile, the bank saw an increase in total deposit at $5.9 billion, up 3.21 per cent from a year ago while total loan outstanding grew 6.7 per cent to $5.8 billion.
Return on Average Assets (ROAA) was 0.44 per cent whereas Return on Average Equity was 2.91 per cent.
It said that the recovery in manufacturing exports and expansion of agricultural commodity exports will augur well for ACLEDA as bulk of borrowers are involved in the agri-related businesses.
On April 29, ACLEDA president and group managing director In Channy said the pandemic saw more customers embracing the use of fintech. Up till January this year, digital transactions were around 94 per cent.
“In January, I said the number of ACLEDA’s digital transactions through digital banking was about 94 per cent. In 2022, we want to push that number to 97 per cent for all operations.
“We really want more than three million of our customers to sign up [to use] our digital systems [via the app]. Currently, only around 70,000 customers have yet to sign up,” he said.
