(8 February 2006 – Australia) Australian regional bank Elders Rural has posted a first half year net profit of A$13.2 million, a 17 percent increase on the same period last year.Elders chief executive Bob Jones said the bank, which is a joint venture between Futuris Corp and Bendigo bank, was well placed to continue growing the business.
“With the strength of the loan book and a diversity of funding available, the bank is well positioned to grow strongly as the fundamentals are in place,” he said.
Elders grew its loans under management by 26 percent in the first half to A$2.47 billion. The bank’s retail deposits increased 13 percent to A$2.38 billion.
Jones said Elders had grown across all of its businesses during the period, including nine percent growth in the number of customers to 51,000.
He said the credit quality of the bank’s book remained high and expected the number of non performing loans to remain low.