Jun 2008 Financial News

RBTT reports flat results

Jun 03, 2008

RBTT Financial Holdings Limited has reported flat results for its latest financial year ended March 31, 2008.

Group Chairman Peter July yesterday said that profit attributable to shareholders “remained flat over last year,” and “diluted earnings per share remained the same as last year at $2.71.”

In a notice released on the same day RBTT shares were suspended from trading on the T&T Stock Exchange, July attributed the group’s performance to a “significant” increase in group taxes. He said RBTT’s tax bill rose by $124 million or 50 per cent in the 12 months up to March 31, 2008, compared to the previous year and said this was due to several factors, “including higher taxable income generated by retail banking entities, increased provisions for tax assessments and changes to the tax legislation in one jurisdiction.”

July also told shareholders that the retail and commercial banking units performed strongly, with pre-tax earnings increasing by 31 per cent. However, he said the performance of the group’s investment banking business fell off with earnings declining 5 per cent. He added that the trust and asset management business also declined marginally by 3 per cent “in a period of sluggish market conditions.”

The group recorded recorded pre-tax earnings of $1,309 million for the year, an improvement of 11 per cent over the previous year, a performance July said was underpinned by strong growth in net interest income of 10 per cent generated by the group’s retail and commercial banking entities.

He said pre-tax earnings for the fourth quarter were $401 million, an increase of 26 per cent over the same period last year.

July said the group’s total assets increased by $5 billion or 11 per cent to $54 billion mainly due to growth in loans and advances of 12 per cent and customers’ deposits of 13 per cent.

Based on the results, the bank has declared a final dividend of 65 cents per share bringing the full year’s dividend to $1.25 per share. Payments were posted to shareholders on May 28.

RBTT shares were removed from trading on the local stock exchange yesterday in preparation for the delisting of the stock. This follows a vote by shareholders at a special meeting on March 26 to approve the sale of RBTT bank to the Royal bank of Canada (RBC).

July said the transaction will be finalised on June 16.

RBC had stated its intention to remove the RBTT shares from the stock exchange if it was successful in its takeover of RBTT.


Source:
The Trinidad Guardian, Page 15
Tuesday June 3, 2008

http://www.guardian.co.tt/business1.html