UBL announces 10% cash dividend

KARACHI: United Bank Limited has announced a cash dividend of 10 per cent or Re1 per share in its financial results for the first half of calendar year 2010. The bank’s results were posted on the Karachi Stock Exchange website on Friday.

On a consolidated basis, UBL has posted profit after tax of Rs5.13 billion as compared to profit of Rs4.60 billion in the same period last year. Earnings per share stood at Rs4.16 as compared to Rs3.76 during the same period last year and correspond to an increase of about 11 per cent on year-on-year basis.

The results show that net interest income has grown by six per cent as compared to the same period last year while total provisions for bad debts have declined by 38 per cent.

Furthermore, profit before taxation has been significantly higher so far this year when compared to calendar year 2009, at about 20 per cent but this increase has been diluted to 11 per cent after tax due to higher effective taxation which was 40 per cent as compared to about 35 per cent last year.

“Investors can take away several positives from this result including a decline in provisions for bad debts and tighter cost controls,” commented AKD Investment analyst Raza Jafri.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 31^st, 2010.