KEY POINTS:
The building society CBS Canterbury has put good half-year figures down to a successful merger with the Loan and Building Society (LBS) this year.
The building society announced its results for the six months to September 30 yesterday.
Chairman Gary Leech said the gross profit was up 36 per cent.
The actual after-tax trading result for the six months was $1.5 million ($185,933 the previous year).
CBS Canterbury maintained a strong financial position with end-of-period equity standing at $53.6 million, up 87.1 per cent on September 30, 2007 (before the LBS merger).
Total assets were $567.9 million ($351.8 million in 2007) and total liabilities at $514.3 million ($323.2 million), leaving net assets at $53.54 million ($28.6 million).
CBS Canterbury's approval into the Crown Retail Deposit Guarantee Scheme would provide additional comfort to new and existing clients, Leech said.
Operating profit before provisions and recoveries was slightly lower than for the same six months last year.
The net operating profit was down 3.7 per cent on the same period, largely due to merger costs, and financial reporting standards adjustments.
Leech said CBS Canterbury's result reflected 133 years of tradition, experience and conservative approach to banking services.
"While for the first time in many years, we have experienced some bad and doubtful debts, we have also achieved significant recoveries in relation to anticipated losses on some loans identified at the time of the merger in February 2008.
"Given the current market, the directors consider the overall provisioning to be a satisfactory result."
CBS Canterbury now held retail deposits of $510.6 million ($321.6 million in September 2007), up slightly from $506.2 million at March 31 this year following the February merger with LBS.
The profile saw residential lending at 58.9 per cent, commercial lending at 32.4 per cent and farming-related lending at 8.6 per cent.
- NZPA
