Bank ABC Islamic Announces 41% Increase in Half-Year Profit to US$15.1 Million

Bank ABC Islamic today announced that its net profit for the first half of 2017 was US$15.1 million, 41% higher than the net profit of US$10.7 million reported in the first half of 2016.

Second quarter 2017 net profit of US$8.7 million was 39% higher than US$ 6.3 million achieved during the same period last year and also represents a 36% increase over the first quarter of 2017 of US$6.4 million.

Total operating income rose to US$19 million, compared to US$14.4 million for the first half of last year. Operating expenses slightly increased to US$3.7 million compared to US$3.5 million for the same period of last year.

Shareholders’ equity at 30th June 2017 stood at US$322 million, compared to US$307 million at 2016 year-end. The bank’s capital base remains very strong with a capital adequacy ratio of 32.7%.

ABC Islamic Bank’s total assets stood at US$1.443 billion as of June 30, 2017 compared to US$1.634 billion at 2016 year-end.

Commenting on the results, Mr. Hammad Hassan, Managing Director of Bank ABC Islamic, said, “Overall performance during the first half of the year is encouraging. Despite challenging economic environment, our focus on generating capital light ancillary business and the ability to originate and distribute transactions has helped in enhancing return on assets. During the first half of the year, the bank has concluded several high profile capital market transactions and successfully originated new corporate clients. The transaction pipeline is robust for rest of the year and our focus will remain on keeping credit costs in check. The bank is well positioned for second half of 2017.”