MUSCAT, 1 May 2005 — Oman International Bank (OIB) has announced a whopping 112 percent surge in the net profit for the first quarter of this year, reaching 6.52 million rials from 3.08 million rials during the same period in 2004.
The net interest income for the period was higher at 7.43 million rials against 6.55 million rials a year back. “This is largely the result of an increase in loan books mainly funded by core low cost deposits,” said OIB in a statement. Other operating income for the first quarter was slightly less at 1.91 million rials as against 2.01 million rials for the same period last year.”
The bank continues to focus on reducing operation expenses, which declined by 1.2 percent to 3.99 million rials,” said the statement, adding: “Our focus on increasing the revenue while controlling the operating expenses resulted in the cost to income ratio improving from 47.2 percent to 42.7 percent.”
Accordingly, the operating profit for the first quarter of the current year was 5.36 million rials compared to 4.52 million rials. Total deposits of the bank improved by 16.7 percent to 581 million rials from 497.72 million rials during the period under review.
Meanwhile, National Bank of Oman (NBO), the country’s second largest bank has, reported a net profit of 3.02 million rials for the first three months of the current year - 132 percent rise from 1.3 million rial posted for the corresponding period in 2004.
Net interest margin reached 7.1 million rials from 1.2 million rials during the period under review. Other operating income of 2.4 million rials was largely comparable to 2.6 million rials achieved during the same period in 2004.
The bank continued to make good progress on recovery against non-performing assets, retreiving 3.2 million rials during the quarter of this year compared to 1.5 million rials during the same period in 2004.
The bank had posted a net profit of 5.2 million rials last year as against a whopping net loss of 51.7 million rials recorded in 2003.