UBL earns profit of Rs21.96 billion

KARACHI: The United Bank Limited (UBL) reported a profit-after-tax of Rs21.96 billion for the year ended December 31, 2014, which was 17.78 percent higher than the last year’s profit, reported the bank to bourse on Wednesday.
This translated into the earnings per share of Rs17.91 from Rs15.21 last year. The bank announced a final cash dividend of Rs4 per share. This was in addition to the interim dividends already paid at Rs7.50 per share, it said.
An analyst at Topline Securities said the strong growth in core income drove profitability of the bank in 2014, as net interest income (NII) increased by 19 percent Y-o-Y. “We attribute this to increased income from high yielding PIBs and improving deposit mix of the bank,” he said.
The bank’s net interest income increased by 20 percent to Rs44 billion from Rs36.6 billion last year. “The increase in the earnings is attributed to higher interest earned (up 14 percent on a yearly basis) and lower provision expense (down 15.4 percent on a yearly basis),” BMA Capital reported.
The bank’s NII remained decent during the year, posting an increase of seven percent on a yearly basis to Rs19.3 billion on account of higher fee and commission income of Rs11.1 billion (up 11 percent on a yearly basis) and healthy income from dealing in foreign exchange of Rs3 billion (up 40 percent on a yearly basis), it added.