July 25, 2019 (MLN): Habib Bank Limited conducted a conference call on Thursday, to discuss the financial results of the company for the period ended June 30, 2019.
The management of the bank vehemently blamed PKR devaluation and the losses resulting from it, for the decline in company’s profitability. As per the meeting minutes, the revaluation loss to the bank amounted to almost Rs. 6 billion in the first half of the current year, as opposed to R. 2.5 billion in the same period last year.
Moreover, impairment charge on listed equities also emerged as one of the main reasons behind the poor financial results of the bank.
Other factors that contributed in the bank’s performance included increased in the cost of funds by 250bps to 5.1%, which helped in controlling the increase in cost of deposits.
The bank’s Net Interest Income (NII) and international NII grew by 18% and 14% respectively.
The bank further highlighted that the domestic advances rose marginally to Rs. 921 billion over December, 2018. Moreover, the domestic deposits also showed a growth of 7% which resulted in an overall market share of 13.8%.
