Corporate results: MCB Bank’s profit surges 43.5%

Earnings of Standard Chartered up 24.8% in 1QCY15.

KARACHI: After an exceptional year, the banking sector has continued to stay in the limelight in 2015. With the first-quarter results being announced, most banks posted healthy results.

MCB Bank

MCB Bank posted a net profit of Rs7.9 billion for January-March, which is up 43.5% from the earnings of a year ago.

According to a notice sent to the Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) on Tuesday, MCB Bank also announced a dividend of Rs4 per share.

According to Shajar Capital investment analyst Hamza Kamal, the prime reason for the deviation from the much lower street consensus regarding the expected earnings growth was the huge gain realisation that augmented non-fund income by 35% on a quarterly basis to Rs5.2 billion. The bank realised Rs2.4 billion in capital gains on both equity and bonds.

On a quarterly basis, net interest income jumped up by 4% to Rs11.9 billion. The increase was because of a decline in interest expense by 4%, as the jump in interest income was only 1% over the preceding quarter. The drop in interest expense was due to a significant chunk (56% in December 2014) of savings accounts in the deposit mix, Kamal added.

“Smoothening of administrative expenses on a quarterly basis has resulted in a decline of 10% in the bank’s non-mark-up expenses to Rs5.6 billion,” he said.

Silk Bank

Silk Bank declared a net profit of Rs49.8 million for the first quarter of 2015, which is down 25.4% from the earnings recorded in the same three-month period of the last year.

The steep decline in earnings of the bank is a result of deferred taxation, as the increase in pre-tax profitability for the quarter under review clocked up at 79.5%.

The mark-up income of the bank grew by almost 5% to Rs2.3 billion in the quarter whereas non-funded income reflected growth of 45% over the same period of the last year.

The bank’s total asset base grew by Rs4.13 billion over the previous quarter to Rs106.7 billion in Jan-March. Investments also reflected quarterly growth of 14.9%, reaching Rs20.8 billion. Net advances decreased by 1.5% during the quarter to Rs58 billion at the end of March 31.

Silk Bank reduced its non-performing loans portfolio in Jan-March, which decreased by Rs884 million compared to last year’s corresponding period. Its deposits posted growth of Rs5.7 billion, or 8.2%, to Rs74.4 billion over the preceding quarter.

Silk Bank announced the issue of rights shares worth Rs10 billion in December 2014. It has received an advance of Rs2 billion against the rights shares subscription. The State Bank of Pakistan already accorded approval and the rights issue process is expected to be completed within this quarter, a statement by Silk Bank said.

Standard Chartered Bank

Standard Chartered Bank Pakistan posted a net profit of Rs2.7 billion for the first quarter of 2015, up 24.8% from the same period last year.

According to a notice sent to the KSE, the bank’s earnings per share clocked up at Rs0.72 as opposed to Rs0.57 recorded in January-March 2014.

Revenues have increased by 14% over the first quarter of the last year. Additionally, the bank’s administrative costs have declined 6.8% last quarter, financial accounts show.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 29^th, 2015.

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