KARACHI: Bank Alfalah Limited on Monday said its pre-tax profit for the first half of 2019 grew 14 percent from a year ago, mainly on the back of high interest rates and better volumes.
A statement said the board of directors in a meeting held on August 18, 2019, in Abu Dhabi, approved the bank’s unaudited interim financial statements for the half year ended June 30, 2019.
The bank, in its statement, also announced the declaration of an interim cash dividend of Rs2/share for the aforementioned period. It said the bank earned a profit of Rs6.209 billion or Rs3.50/share, up from a profit of Rs6.039 billion or Rs3.40/share despite Super Tax levied for 2017 through the mini-budget in 2019.
The bank’s revenue increased 27 percent from a year earlier, the statement said, while it attributed higher discount rate, rising average deposits, and effective balance sheet management to a strong rise in net interest income.
It said gain realised on government securities last year and bearish stock market sentiments during the first half of 2019 were the reasons behind lower capital gains, whereas fee and commission income was 11 percent higher than the same period last year.
The bank reported a 16 percent rise in administrative expenses over the same period previously, citing factors like deposit protection insurance (a new levy), annual increments, customer promotion costs, cost of compliance such as biometric verification, inflationary adjustments and currency devaluation.