Commercial Bank ranked 2nd in Business Today’s Top 25 PLCs

Thursday, 8 October 2015 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

The Commercial Bank of Ceylon PLC has been ranked second in Business Today’s ‘Top 25’ public listed corporate entities in Sri Lanka in 2014-15 on the basis of financial performance.

This is the eighth year that Sri Lanka’s largest private bank has been ranked among the top five listed companies in the country by Business Today, and the third consecutive year that it has been ranked second in this prestigious list.

Financial criteria considered for the ranking include share turnover, revenue, profit after tax, return on equity, Earnings per Share, market capitalisation and value addition. Weights are assigned to the criteria uniformly to arrive at the scores on which the order in which companies are ranked is decided.

The 2014-15 Top 25 rankings of Business Today places Commercial Bank well ahead of some of Sri Lanka’s leading diversified conglomerates, multinationals and other financial services companies.

In the year reviewed for this latest ranking, Commercial Bank posted net profit of Rs. 11.180 billion on profit before tax of Rs. 15.736 billion. Total assets stood at Rs. 795.6 billion as at 31 December 2014 with the bank’s net assets value per share reaching Rs. 81.44. Basic earnings per share for the year were Rs. 12.94.

“We value this ranking because it is based not on size per se, but on performance. It is therefore a tribute to the professionalism and acumen of the entire team at Commercial Bank,” Commercial Bank Chief Operating Officer/Executive Director S. Renganathan said. “Rankings of this nature can serve as a valuable benchmark for companies to assess their performance against others in multiple sectors of business.”

The only Sri Lankan bank to be ranked among the Top 1000 banks of the world for five consecutive years, Commercial Bank operates a network of 244 branches and 616 ATMs in Sri Lanka and is the country’s largest private bank. The bank was ranked the most valuable private sector brand in Sri Lanka in 2014 and has also won multiple awards as Sri Lanka’s best bank from several other international publications over several years. The bank was adjudged one of Sri Lanka’s 10 best corporate citizens by the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce in 2013 and 2014.

Commercial Bank’s overseas operations encompass Bangladesh, where the bank operates 18 branches and Myanmar, where it has a Representative Office in Yangon. In September 2015, the bank received regulatory approval for the establishment of a fully-fledged Tier I Bank in the Maldives.