Sampath Bank reported profit after tax of Rs 16.6 billion for the six months ended 30 June 2026, a 13 percent increase on the same period last year, according to results released by the bank.
At group level, the Sampath Group reported profit before tax of Rs 26.6 billion and profit after tax of Rs 17.9 billion for the half year.
A stronger second quarter
The bank recorded a sharp quarter-on-quarter improvement, with profit after tax rising 69 percent against the preceding quarter. It attributed this to a 22 percent increase in total operating income and an 89 percent reduction in impairment charges.
EconomyNext, reporting the group’s quarterly figures, put group profit for the three months to 30 June at Rs 11.03 billion, up 64.6 percent year on year, with basic earnings of Rs 9.41 per share against Rs 5.72 a year earlier. Group total assets reached Rs 2.24 trillion at end-June, up 8.3 percent from the close of 2025.
Earnings in the quarter were bolstered by the recovery of long-outstanding loans, which for the bank alone produced an impairment reversal of more than Rs 3 billion.
Note: EconomyNext’s headline gives quarterly profit as Rs 10.45 billion while its own text gives Rs 11.03 billion. The two figures appear to reflect bank-level and group-level results respectively, consistent with the bank/group split in Sampath’s own disclosure.
The half-year picture
Total operating income for the bank rose 17 percent to Rs 63.3 billion. Net interest income increased 11 percent to Rs 42.8 billion, as total interest income of Rs 97.8 billion (up 9 percent) outpaced an 8 percent rise in interest expenses to Rs 55.1 billion. Net fee and commission income rose 26 percent.
The bank’s net interest margin improved to 4.21 percent from 4.11 percent in 2025.
Those gains were moderated by a materially higher impairment charge of Rs 5.0 billion for the period — a 324 percent year-on-year increase — which the bank said was driven primarily by collective impairment tied to the expanding loan book, alongside prudent provisioning given geopolitical uncertainty and the wider macroeconomic environment.
The loan portfolio grew by Rs 226 billion from end-2025, an 18 percent increase. Customer deposits rose to Rs 1.78 trillion at group level.
Capital and funding
Sampath reported a total capital ratio of 15.72 percent and a Tier 1 ratio of 13.40 percent, with return on equity of 18.91 percent and return on assets of 2.40 percent.
Total exchange income for the bank rose 198 percent to Rs 7.2 billion over the half year, driven primarily by rupee depreciation. In July the bank issued a Rs 10 billion Basel III-compliant green bond, which was oversubscribed on its first day.
The results land as the Central Bank warns that inflation will remain above its 5 percent target in the near term.
