RIYADH, 9 July 2004 — Samba Financial Group, Saudi Arabia’s second largest bank, posted a net income of SR1.21 billion for the first six months of 2004, 24 percent higher than the same period last year, according to Eisa Al-Eisa, Samba managing director and chief executive officer. “Consequently, the net income for the first six months which ended June 30 was the highest ever in the history of Samba. After transition to local management, Samba has continued to deliver robust growth and strong performance,” Al-Eisa said.
He added that the outstanding quarterly and the half yearly net income reported earlier was the best in its 23-year history. The net income of SR629 million for the current quarter is a 27 percent increase over the same period last year while core net income excluding capital gains is up by 61 percent.
“More significantly, Samba’s core net income without one-off capital gains for the same period last year grew by staggering 77 percent; and was largely due to its core operating income without capital gains growing by 25 percent,” Al-Eisa said.
New strategic initiatives are beginning to have an effect and a number of innovative products and services were launched during this period. The bank participated actively in Sahara Petrochemical Public Offering, which achieved record subscriptions. “We continue to prudently manage our balance sheet. Total investments at SR40 billion were up by 14 percent and total loans and advances were SR40.4 billion, up 20 percent over the same period last year. Total assets were at SR87 billion compared to SR78.7 billion in June 2003, and demand deposits were at SR23.7 billion, up nearly 20 percent for the same period which is reflective of the increasing business momentum and the confidence our customers have in us,” the CEO said.
Samba continues to enjoy strong capitalization and a healthy balance sheet with shareholders’ equity of SR9 billion supporting total assets of SR87 billion. The performance indicators for the six-month period ended June 30 are reflecting this outstanding performance over the same period last year. Annualized ROA has gone up to 2.9 percent from 2.5 percent, ROE at 27.1 percent compared to 21.5 percent and Core Revenue to Expense ratio improved to approximately 3.1 compared to 2.7.
