Manama, Bahrain: Bank ABC (Arab Banking Corporation B.S.C.) - Bahrain Bourse Trading Code “ABC” - today announces its results for the first quarter of 2019:

Business Performance (Q1 2019):

  • Consolidated net profit attributable to the shareholders of the parent for the first quarter of the year 2019 was US$55 million, 4% higher compared to US$53 million reported for the same period last year.
  • Profit before Taxation was US$76 million, 5% lower compared to US$80 million reported for the first quarter of 2018 and was impacted by FX depreciation, mainly a 14% devaluation year on year of Brazilian Real (“BRL”) against USD.
  • On a headline basis, total operating income was US$215 million against US$211 million reported for the same period last year. Underlying growth of 8% in local currency terms was reduced to 2% by FX depreciation of the Brazilian Real (“BRL”) against USD in particular.
  • The Earnings per share remained steady at US$0.02, similar to the first quarter of the previous year.
  • Operating expenses were at US$128 million, US$9 million or 8% higher than the same period of last year, due to inflation and continuing investment into strategic initiatives to transform and reshape the Bank.
  • Impairment charges were at US$11 million compared with the US$12 million reported for the same period last year and are largely in line with our expectations for cost of credit, also reflecting proactive and conservative credit management.
  • Ratio of impaired loans to gross loans remained at 2018 year-end levels of 4.0%, but normalises to 3.1%, when long-standing legacy fully provided loans are adjusted for. Provisions coverage against the aggregate impaired exposures remained comfortable at 97%.
  • Tax charge is US$10 million, compared to the charge of US$14 million for the previous year’s first quarter, driven by lower pre-tax profit and FX impact.
  • Total comprehensive income attributable to the shareholders of the parent was US$89 million compared to US$50 million reported for the first quarter of 2018, primarily due to fair value movement in FVOCI debt instruments.

Balance Sheet:

  • Total assets stood at US$29.9 billion at the end of the first quarter of 2019, compared to US$29.5 billion at the 2018 year-end, whilst loans and advances remained constant at $14.9 billion, reflecting our continuing emphasis on prudent use of balance sheet.  
  • Deposits at the end of the period were at US$21.2 billion, $0.5billion higher than the US$20.7 billion at 2018 year-end, with main growth being in customer deposits $17.2 billion up from $16.4 billion.
  • Liquidity ratios were strong, with LCR and NSFR on a Basel III basis exceeding 100% with comfortable buffer and liquid assets to deposits ratio healthy at 58%.
  • Capital Ratios strong: Tier 1 16.6% and total capital adequacy ratio (CAR) 17.3%.

Bank ABC's Group Chairman, Mr. Saddek Omar El Kaber, commented that “The Q1 results show a positive start to the year. We remain cautious, particularly given the mixed outlook we face in our markets as well as signs of changing Global market trends. As has been our position, we continue to place emphasis on ABC’s organisational health through maintaining a strong balance sheet and conservative credit risk management. We take comfort that this course was also recognised by S&P in upgrading ABC’s rating outlook to BBB- stable in its recent review.

Bank ABC is a leading player in the region’s banking industry and provides innovative wholesale financial products and services that include corporate banking, trade finance, project and structured finance, syndications, treasury products and Islamic banking. It also provides retail banking services through its network of retail banks in Jordan, Egypt, Tunisia and Algeria.

The full set of the financial statements and the press release are available on Bahrain Bourse’ website.

- Ends –

For more information please contact

Brendon Hopkins, Group CFO, Manama, Kingdom of Bahrain, tel. +973 17543223 or fax +973 17531311

© Press Release 2019

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