Mashreq Group, one of the UAE’s leading financial institutions, announced impressive results for third quarter achieving profit of AED 1.5 billion a growth of 12.3%, as compared to AED 1.3 Billion for the same period last year.
Total assets of the group reached AED 94 Billion, up 26.7% from AED 74.2 billion at end of September 2007. Customer deposits reached AED 51.7 billion, representing an increase of 17.7% over last year’s deposits of AED 43.9 billion, whilst customer advances have grown by 59.8%, to AED 56.1 billion from AED 35.1 billion.
“The UAE Banking sector remains resilient” said Abdul Aziz Al Ghurair, CEO of Mashreq. “Mashreq enjoys a long history of more than 41 years of trust of customers in the UAE. As the results shows, Mashreq is in a very healthy status. We are committed to our expansion plans locally and regionally. The 2009 plan includes opening 12 new branches in the UAE and 10 new branches in Egypt”.
The growth in total assets contributed to a marked increase in net interest income, and income from Islamic products net of distribution to depositors at AED 1,431 million, compared to AED 852 million for the same period last year, registering a growth of 67.9%. Net Fee, Commission and Other Income also recorded an impressive growth of 43% over last year. However, investment income reduced from AED 553 million to AED 75 million mainly due to the decline in valuations and poor liquidity in the global and regional markets. Total Operating Income registered an impressive growth of 23.8% to reach AED 3.2 billion against AED 2.6 billion of last year.
For the 3rd quarter of 2008 the Net Interest Income witnessed an increase of 70%, while the Net Fee Commission and Other Income and Operating Income for the three months period ended 30 September 2008 showed 40% increase over the 3rd quarter of 2007. The operating income went up by 14% as compared to same period last year. However due to decline in Investment income the net profit of third quarter of 2008 is AED 346Millions which is 12.5% lower then the net profit for the same period in 2007.
Mashreq continues to invest in human resources, infrastructure development and technology. This has resulted in the expenses for the six months of 2008 being higher than same period last year by 35%.
Since the start of the year, Mashreq opened seven new branches taking the total number of UAE outlets to 54. Badr Al Islami, the Islamic arm of Mashreq opened two Badr Business outlets located at Al Riqa and Park Place. By the end of 2008, Mashreq plans to open a total of 11 Badr Business centres to help cater to the growing demand for Islamic finance.
