CAL Bank, (Ghana Stock Exchange: CAL) the universal bank based in Ghana announces its unaudited results for the first quarter ended 31st March 2011.

Frank Adu Jnr. the CEO of CAL bank commented: “The first quarter of 2011 has started off on a good note with a 21% increase in the Group’s operating income and a 13.0% increase in profit after tax compared to last year. This was due to the continuous enhancement in the management of our operations as well as strong performance of our subsidiaries. Key earning drivers were reductions in interest expense, growth in Non-interest Revenue (NIR) and lower levels of provisioning as forecasted at the end of 2010.”

“The bank continues to perform strongly and we expect to be compliant with the new capital requirements within the 2012 deadline. This will create a solid platform to compete successfully for business in the growing oil industry and the overall expanding economy”.

CFO Mr. Philip Owiredu added: “Our first quarter results this year are a good indication of improved performance to come in the second and third quarters of 2011. There was a general improvement in total income owing to a substantial reduction in interest expense by 25%. The drop in our interest expense was a result of downward re-pricing of fixed term deposits as well as an improvement in the deposits mix. The Group was able to achieve a 20.8% increase in customer deposits. The Bank’s Non-Interest Revenue increased due to an increase in international trade volumes resulting in 25.6% higher non- interest revenues. Our non-performing loans ratio increased only marginally by 3.1% to 12.1% and we continue to rigorously enforce measures to keep our NPLs below the industry average.

The Group’s Financial Highlights - March 2011

• Shareholder’s Funds up by 10.6% to GHS 82.12 million (GHS 74.25 milion in March 2010)
• Capital Adequacy of 14.46% (20.67% in 2010)
• Cost/Income ratio at 51.79% (47.0% in 2010)
• RoAE at 16.1% (19.6% in 2010)
• RoAA at 2.5 % (2.8% In 2010)

Financial Highlights

Profit & Loss- continued profitability

• Operating Income of GHS 15.03 million an increase of 16% compared with last year of GHS 12.95 million
• Profit before tax of GHS 4.65 million, an increase of 13.3%. (GHS 4.10 million in 2010)
• Profit after tax of GHS 3.15 Million, an increase of 13.0% from last year. (GHS 2.78 million in 2010).

Balance Sheet- growing deposits and controlled growth in risk assets

• Total assets of GHS 534.97 million, an increase of 15.4% (GHS 463.71 million in 2010)
• Net Loans and Advances of GHS 258.22 million, an increase of 13.9% (GHS 226.68 million in 2010)
• Customer deposits up by 20.8% to GHS 317.29 million. ( GHS 262.73 million in 2010)
• Loan/Deposit Ratio of 81.38% ( 86.28% in 2010)
• High Liquidity Ratio of 54.62% (54.14% in 2010)

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION:

CAL Bank

Philip Owiredu (Chief Financial Officer) +233 (0)21 680 264 
Dzifa Amegashie (Investor Relations Officer) +233 (0)21 685 091

africapractice (Investor Relations advisers)

Azim Datardina +233 (0) 261 906 139