KARACHI, July 14: The Allied Bank Limited (ABL) has earned an operating profit of Rs1.5 billion during the first half of the current year registering an increase of 125 per cent over the corresponding period of last year.

This was announced by a spokesman of the bank in a statement here on Monday. He said that the bank continued its focus on restructuring and remedial measures during this period with the result that after deducting unusual items (prior period cost) the profits have surged by over 3,200 per cent as compared to the last year’s corresponding period.

It was stated that the deposits of the bank grew to Rs112 billion thereby registering an increase of more than nine per cent over the corresponding period of last year.

The spokesman said that the advances portfolio of the bank as of June 30, 2003, stood at Rs52 billion.

The bank has transacted foreign exchange business of over Rs25.3 billion during the period under review.

The recovery performance of the bank has also been very outstanding as it has recovered approximately Rs5 billion including cash recoveries of over Rs1.9 billion during this period.—APP