Saudi British Bank Q3 net income down 10% over pandemic

Saudi British Bank (SABB) has reported a net profit after Zakat and income tax of SR1.05 billion ($279 million) for the three months ended September 30, due to the persistence of Covid-19 pandemic and the resulting strong business competition.

Announcing the Q3 results, SABB said this was a decrease of SR122 million or 10% compared to the equivalent period from 2019.

For the nine-month period, SABB had recorded a loss after Zakat and income tax of SR4.84 billion, which included a SR7.4 billion impairment of goodwill in the second quarter of 2020 relating to the goodwill created following the merger with Alawwal bank.

Total operating income of SR2,141 million for the three months ended September 30, a decrease of 20% compared with the equivalent period of 2019; and SR6,828 million for the nine months ended 30 September 2020, an increase of 3%, it stated.

Gross loans and advances as at 30 September 2020 of SR159.4 billion increased SR3.6 billion compared with 30 September 2019 and decreased SR1 billion compared with 30 June 2020

Customers’ deposits as at 30 September 2020 of SR180.2 billion decreased SR3.2 billion compared with 30 September 2019 and decreased SR8.2 billion compared with 30 June 2020, it added.

Commenting on the results, Chairman Lubna Suliman Olayan said: "As the third quarter ended, we drew closer to our goal of attaining a full and seamless integration of the merged bank. We completed the migration of the majority of our wholesale business and we are on target with our plan to complete the full integration of the bank in the first half of next year."

"We are working as a single team throughout the Bank, we seek out opportunities and manage risk as one bank, and we are delivering on the promised synergies. So SABB’s future looks bright, even through the lens of these challenging times," she stated.

"Notwithstanding our successes, it comes as no surprise that the operating performance of the Bank reflects the challenges of the macro economic environment, caused by the persistence of the COVID-19 global pandemic and the resulting strong competition for customer business," said Olayan.

"Although operating margins across the sector are compressed, SABB remains well capitalized and highly liquid, and we saw our cost of credit risk decrease significantly in the third quarter, reflecting the adequacy of the Bank’s credit provisions to date," she added.-TradeArabia News Service

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