MANAMA: Bank ABC Islamic closed the first quarter of 2022 with net profit of $8.8 million, largely on track with expectations.
The core banking business grew on a year-on-year basis as the bank gradually emerges from the impact of the Covid 19 pandemic.
However, the capital markets business witnessed subdued activity in the first quarter due to rising profit rate environment as well as volatility in the market caused by the geo-political situation.
As the markets stabilise and investors and issuers get used to the new higher rate environment, the bank expects the capital markets business to pick up with new sukuk issuances and syndicated facilities.
Key performance highlights for the quarter include net profit of $8.8 million, 15.6pc lower than the same period last year; Total operating income of $9.1m, 22.5pc lower than the same period of 2021.
The bank said total operating income and net profit variance from last year is mainly attributable to subdued capital markets activity in the first quarter and one-off higher income in Q1, 2021 from distribution of certain assets
The balance sheet remains strong with capital adequacy ratio of 40.7%
Commenting on the results, Hammad Hassan, managing director of Bank ABC Islamic, said, “We started the year with the milder Omicron variant and as a result with lesser restrictions, leading to business travel returning to normalcy.
This will have positive impact on new-to-bank customer acquisition, an important performance metric for the business.
We are largely on track with our expectations for performance in 2022. With the improvement in macroeconomic credit environment and the region benefiting from higher oil price, we remain cautiously optimistic about business performance picking up pace during the coming months.”
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