Sharjah Islamic Bank net profits rise by 10.5% to $108mln in 9 months

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SHARJAH - Sharjah Islamic Bank (SIB) has announced robust financial results despite economic challenges for the first nine months of 2018 declaring net profits at AED397.7 million compared to AED360 million declared during the same period last year, showing a 10.5% increase.

Total assets of the Shariah-compliant bank reached AED44 billion at the end of September 2018 compared to AED38.3 billion reported at the end of December 2017, representing an increase of 14.9%.

The bank said customer financing reached AED22.9 billion at the end of September 2018 compared to AED21.7 billion at the end of December 2017, showing an increase of 5.7%. Also, investment in securities, which mainly represents an investment in sovereign and investment grade rated tradable Sukuk, increased significantly by 27.1% to reach AED6.4 billion compared to AED5 billion at the end of 2017.

Moreover, the bank continues its strategy to maintain liquid assets ratio above 22% of the total assets and has reached the level of AED10 billion or 22.7% at the end of September 2018, resulting in strong liquidity position.

Despite tight liquidity situation during the year, the bank successfully attracted more customer deposits during 2018 with AED4.7 billion increase. Customers deposits increased by 21.2% to AED27 billion during the first nine months of 2018 compared to AED22.3 billion declared at the end of 2017.

The Banks net operating income reached AED815.4 million during January to September 2018 compared to AED696.5 million in the same period in 2017, showing an increase of 17.1%.

SIBs performance reflected positively on the financial indicators. Its capital adequacy ratio stood at 18.29%, much higher than the UAE Central Bank requirement under Basil III at 10.5%. The banks Non-Performing Loans (NPL) coverage ratio has improved to reach 122% of the NPLs in 2018 compared to 99.8% by the end of 2017.

Return (annualised) on Average Shareholders Equity (ROAE) reached 9.76% by the end of the 3rd Quarter 2018 compared to 9.21% at the end of December 2017, while Return (annualised) on Average Assets (ROAA) was 1.29% by the end of the 3rd quarter of 2018 compared to 1.33% at the end of December 2017.