KARACHI: Habib Bank Limited (HBL) declared on Friday a consolidated profit of Rs15.7 billion for the first half of 2017, down 1.8 per cent from Rs16bn a year ago.

Earnings per share of the bank were Rs10.56 while pre-tax profit remained Rs27.7bn.

The bank also declared a dividend of Rs3.50 per share, bringing the total dividend for 2017 to Rs7 per share.

Increasing demand for private-sector credit has resulted in strong lending growth, with net advances increasing 11pc to Rs831bn.

With all business segm­ents registering significant in­­­creases, average domestic loans grew 28pc year-on-year. Average domestic current accounts increased 17pc.

Habib Bank was able to maintain its net interest income for the half year at the preceding year’s level of Rs41.4bn.

Non-markup income continued to deliver a strong performance across all business lines. It grew 14pc to Rs16.4bn. Fee and commission income increased 9pc to Rs10.2bn, with growth coming from core banking businesses, asset management and home remittances.

Topline Securities reported that the bank’s second-quarter earnings were down 6pc on a year-on-year basis to Rs6.4bn. It was largely because of margin compression post-maturity of high-yielding Pakistan Inve­s­tment Bonds (PIBs) in July-September 2016 and an up­­tick in non-markup expenses.

Net interest income rem­a­i­ned flat at Rs21.2bn due to lower margin on PIBs, thus containing bottom line growth.

Non-interest expense rose 9pc to Rs14.8bn, affecting the company’s bottom line.

According to a press rele­ase, deposits crossed Rs2 trillion, driving a 7.4pc growth in the balance sheet to Rs2.7tr.

Published in Dawn, August 12th, 2017