February 16, 2008	Saturday	Safar 08, 1429

KARACHI, Feb 15: MCB Bank has so far emerged as the best-performing bank in terms of profits and earning per share as the National Bank of Pakistan has yet to declare its results.

The bank showed a growth of 15 per cent and 26 per cent profit before and after tax, respectively, which stood at Rs21.31 billion and Rs15.27 billion. So far it is the best results as most of the important banks have announced their results.

This translates into EPS (earning per share) of Rs24.30 as compared to Rs19.33 reported for the corresponding year. This is the highest EPS. However, analysts said the NBP results could be better than MCB Bank. They expect both profits and EPS of the NBP higher than the MCB Bank.

Net interest income (NII) of the bank surged by 13 per cent to Rs23.92 billion in 2007 against Rs21.2 billion recorded in 2006. Non-interest income of the bank grew by 20 per cent to Rs6 billion.

The bank has also announced a cash dividend of Rs5 per share along with its full year results, which is in addition to Rs7.5 per share interim cash dividend already paid. “High profit of MCB Bank was due to lower provisioning impact on the profit as it was much lower than HBL and UBL,” said Mohammad Imran, head of Research at First Capital Equities.

The bank’s cash payout is the highest amount of dividend given by any other local bank, he added.