Corporate Results: National Bank profits rise 14%

Fee and commission income declines by 5%.

KARACHI:

National Bank of Pakistan profits rose 14% to Rs4.65 billon in the first quarter of 2012 amid drop in bad loans and increase in non-interest income.

Net reversal of Rs513 million in total provisioning against an expense of Rs1.68 billion in the corresponding quarter of last year helped the upward growth, said Global Securities analyst Syed Saquib Ali.

The result was below market expectation’s net profit of Rs5.37 billion as analyst did not anticipate the jump in administrative expenses. Expecting better results, investors offloaded the stock on Wednesday and with it value of the scrip fell Rs1.72 to close at Rs47.08 during trade at the Karachi Stock Exchange.

In line with the industry trend, net interest income declined by 6% with margins likely contracted on an annual basis.

Non-markup income declined by a surprising 36% on a quarterly basis – a sharp dip in fee and commission of income of 18% accompanied by lower capital gains explains the decline.

Fee and commission income maintains a worrying trend, declining by 5% while an increase of 103% in dividend income drove non-markup income up by 7%.  Non-mark up expenses clocked in largely as expected down by 20% on a yearly basis.

The result is satisfactory in comparison with the other big four banks as three of them – Habib Bank, Allied Bank and United Bank – pulled in a better performance during the quarter ended March 31.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 28^th, 2012.