HBL’s net interest income up

KARACHI: Habib Bank Limited (HBL) beat analyst expectations as its profit after tax increased by 30 per cent in the half year ended June 30, 2010 as compared to the same period last year.

The company posted profit after tax of Rs7.86 billion in the second half of fiscal year 2009-10, compared with Rs6.09 billion last year.

The bank did not declare a cash dividend or bonus, according to the financial results released on Wednesday. Its earnings per share increased by 26 per cent to Rs7.77, compared to Rs6.16 last year.

HBL’s net interest income during the second half of the fiscal year 2010 increased by 5.87 per cent to Rs39.6 billion as compared with Rs37.47 billion during the same period last year while non-interest income increased by 27 per cent to Rs6.3 billion, compared with Rs4.97 billion in the same period last year. This caused its gross profit to increase by 30 per cent to Rs3.83 billion as compared with Rs2.95 billion last year. The decrease in cost of sales was larger than the decrease in turnover.

Provisions and write-offs decreased to Rs3.21 billion in the period ended June 30 as compared with Rs5.11 billion last year. Analysts were expecting that provisions for non-performing loans would decrease and that a higher fee income would more than make up for the impact of flat interest income.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 29^th, 2010.