Bank ABC Islamic announces 41% increase in half-year profit

Bank ABC Islamic announced that its net profit for the first half of 2017 was $15.1 million, 41 percent higher than the net profit of $10.7 million reported in the first half of 2016.
Second quarter 2017 net profit of $8.7 million was 39 percent higher than $ 6.3 million achieved during the same period last year and also represents a 36 percent increase over the first quarter of 2017 of $6.4 million.
Total operating income rose to $19 million, compared to $14.4 million for the first half of last year. Operating expenses slightly increased to $3.7 million compared to $3.5 million for the same period of last year.
ABC Islamic Bank’s total assets stood at $1.44 billion as of June 30, 2017, compared to $1.63 billion at 2016 year-end.
Commenting on the results, Hammad Hassan, managing director of Bank ABC Islamic, said: “Overall performance during the first half of the year is encouraging.
Despite challenging economic environment, our focus on generating capital light ancillary business and the ability to originate and distribute transactions has helped in enhancing return on assets.
During the first half of the year, the bank has concluded several high profile capital market transactions and successfully originated new corporate clients.
The transaction pipeline is robust for rest of the year and our focus will remain on keeping credit costs in check. The bank is well positioned for the second half of 2017.”