ABG post Q3 profit of $28 m

Al Baraka Banking Group (ABG) yesterday announced its third-quarter financials saying that the group’s performance continued to improve across all its banking units, despite prevailing geopolitical and economic challenges in Turkey, Sudan, Algeria and Syria. Sheikh Saleh Abdullah Kamel, Chairman of Al Baraka Banking Group, said the bank believes that these “challenges can be overcome by continuing to adhere to the sound approach of Islamic banking in delivering products and services of real social and economic value to their communities.”

However, the Group’s adherence to its conservative approach to set aside hedging provisions for all its units resulted in a 14 per cent decrease in net income attributable to shareholders during the third quarter to reach US$ 28m compared to the second quarter of the year. Net income attributable to the parent for the third quarter increased by 15pc to reach US$ 28m compared to US$ 24m for the same period last year.

Basic and diluted earnings per share for the quarter reached US 2.24 cents compared to US 1.94 cents for the same period last year. Total operating income reached US$ 235m compared to US$ 296m for the same period last year, representing a decrease of 21pc. Net operating income reached US$ 98m, showing a decrease of 45pc compared to US$ 178m for the same period last year.

Total Group net income reached US$36m compared to US$ 42m for the same period last year, representing 12pc decrease. The third quarter witnessed continued improvement in income as compared to the second quarter of the year, as total operating income increased by 4pc to reach US$ 235m, net operating income by 1pc to reach US$ 98m.

Nine-month results

The group said its results for the nine months of the year 2019 as a whole were partially affected by the decrease in the Group’s results during the first quarter of the year. Net income attributable to the shareholders of the Group was US$ 84m, a decrease of 15pc compared to US$ 98m for the same period in the previous year. Basic and diluted earnings per share reached US 5.51 cents compared to US 6.69 cents for the same period last year.

ABG’s total net income reached US$ 132m, a decline of 19pc, and total operating income US$ 677m, a decline of 16pc, for the same period. Total assets increased to exceed US$ 25 billion at the end of September 2019 compared to the end of December 2018. Customer accounts including due to banks and financial institutions as at the end of September 2019 reached US$ 21.5 billion, an increase of 10pc compared to US$ 19.6 billion level as at end of December 2018.