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Amana Bank Plc: research report

UndervaluedbullishAug 16, 2026

Amana Bank is profitable, growing and valued below finance-sector norms. The catch is heavy bank leverage, with operating profit covering finance costs only 0.64 times.

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Why bullish

  • The 2025 audited year delivered 39.8% net profit growth and ROE of 9.9%.
  • The shares trade at 5.38 times earnings and 0.56 times book value, with the P/B at the 12th sector percentile.
  • The dividend rose from LKR 1.20 to LKR 1.30 per share, while the latest reported quarter generated LKR 623 million of profit.

Against this. Total debt was LKR 173.95 billion and interest cover was only 0.64 times in the latest annual balance-sheet data.

Operating margin
48.1%sector 40.4%
from 46.4% a year earlier
Net margin
21.9%sector 17.8%
from 19.8% a year earlier, revenue +20.7%
Return on equity
9.9%sector 13.0%
full year to Dec 31, 2025
P/E
5.8sector 6.9
earnings Rs 4.50 per share
P/B
0.55sector 0.94
book Rs 47.30 per share
Dividend yield
9.43%sector 2.16%
trailing twelve months

Current figures, updated daily from filings to Jun 30, 2026. The report below was written on Aug 16, 2026. Sector figures are the median of 54 listed companies in the same sector.

Overview

Amana Bank is a Sharia-compliant commercial bank focused on retail, SME and corporate financing, supported by trade finance, leasing, treasury and digital channels. Its recent record shows a bank that has moved beyond survival earnings: the 2025 audited year produced its best reported performance, while the latest quarter remained profitable.

Price performance

The share fell 6.4% over three months and 12.4% over six months, underperforming the ASPI declines of 5.6% and 9.2% over the same windows. Over one year it gained 7.8%, slightly behind the index's 9.3%. The last close was LKR 26.40 as at 2026-08-14, the price used for the reported multiples.

The stock sits 24.4% up from its 52-week low and 19.1% below its high, placing it in the lower quarter of its range. Recent 60-day volatility was 17.6%, 40.0% below its own one-year volatility, while 20-day volume was 26.5% above the 60-day average. This describes quieter price movement but stronger recent turnover, not lower co-movement with the market; beta was 1.22.

Valuation

Amana trades at 5.38 times earnings and 0.56 times book value, against finance-sector medians of 7.65 and 0.97. Its P/E is at the 27th sector percentile, while its P/B is at the 12th percentile, making the discount to book the clearer valuation feature.

The 4.9% dividend yield is above the sector median of 3.3% and ranks at the 61st percentile among companies reporting a yield. The payout has increased from LKR 0.675 per share in FY2019 to LKR 1.20 in FY2024 and LKR 1.30 in FY2025; the latest payout ratio was 26.5%, with 3.77 times dividend cover. The low P/B is not explained by a high return on equity: 2025 ROE was 9.9%.

News and sentiment

Coverage was normal in breadth but unusually quiet in frequency: five material articles appeared in the 90-day window, comprising one positive and four neutral reports, while the recent monthly rate was zero against a baseline of 1.5 articles.

The company reported record 2025 performance and a best-ever first-quarter 2026 result, including reported PAT above LKR 500 million. It also acquired its Colombo corporate office for LKR 2.7 billion on 2026-06-30, and board risk-committee changes were reported on 2026-06-12 and 2026-07-10. No undated corporate action is outstanding in the supplied data.

Financials

The 2025 audited year was the main improvement: revenue grew 15.8% and net profit grew 39.8% year on year, reaching LKR 2.48 billion. Annual operating margin was 54.6%, net margin was 24.7%, and ROE was 9.9%. The faster profit growth indicates stronger earnings below the operating line as well as operating expansion, rather than a purely margin-led result.

For the quarter ended 2026-06-30, revenue was LKR 2.84 billion, operating profit was LKR 1.37 billion and net profit was LKR 623 million. Operating margin was 48.1% and net margin was 21.9%, but the latest filing is on a company basis while the 2025-06-30 comparison is on a group basis, so the 48.1% versus 46.4% and 21.9% versus 19.8% levels are not like-for-like changes. No comparable-basis historical rank is supplied. Gross margin is not reported.

The latest quarter's below-line drag was LKR 744 million, showing that finance costs, tax and other items still remove a substantial part of operating profit. Equity attributable to owners was LKR 26.07 billion. Share count fell from 2.78 billion in 2023 to 551.1 million in 2024, so historical EPS and book-value-per-share movements are mechanically affected by the share-count change and should not be treated as operating trends.

Risks

The largest risk is financing structure: total debt was LKR 173.95 billion, equal to 693.5% of owners' equity, while interest cover was only 0.64 times in the year ended 2025-12-31. This leaves earnings sensitive to funding costs and the spread between financing income and expense.

Cash conversion and a current ratio are not meaningful measures for a bank because deposit and lending flows dominate operating cash flow. Credit quality remains a key balance-sheet variable, although company news reported Stage 3 impaired financing at 1.2% in the 2025 results. The LKR 2.7 billion office acquisition also commits capital to property rather than directly to lending capacity.

For the sector, lower market funding costs and abundant liquidity are supportive context, while inflation at 7.3% keeps macroeconomic pressure elevated. These are sector and market conditions, not evidence of a company-specific effect.

Outlook

As at 2026-08-16, the next identifiable event is the filing for the quarter ending 2026-09-30, expected between 2026-11-07 and 2027-01-07. That filing will replace the latest company-basis quarter and should provide the next clean read on profit growth, funding costs and asset quality.

Lower market funding costs and 27.4% year-on-year private-sector credit growth are constructive sector conditions as at 2026-08-16, but the supplied data cannot show how much of that benefit reaches Amana Bank. The immediate picture therefore rests on whether the next filing confirms continued profitability without a further deterioration in the heavy interest burden.

About this report. Generated on Aug 16, 2026 from market data up to Aug 14, 2026, 5 material news articles over 90 days and financials to Jun 30, 2026. Every figure is drawn from EquityLK's own data on this company. AI research can contain errors, so treat it as a starting point, not investment advice.

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