HBL posts profits

KARACHI: Habib Bank Limited (HBL), the country’s largest commercial bank, has announced 15.1 percent decline in the net profits, as higher provisions and abnormal surge in taxation trimmed shareholders’ earnings.
Although, pretax profit for the quarter ended June 30, 2015 surged 24.8 percent to Rs15.881 billion as compared to Rs12.717 billion last year, but 104 percent jump in taxation brought after tax earnings to Rs7.184 billion for June quarter 2015 as compared to Rs8.462 billion in June 2014.
The earnings per share (EPS) clocked in at Rs4.61 for the period under review as against Rs5.75 a year earlier.
HBL also announced an interim dividend of Rs3.50, which is in addition to Rs3.50 already paid to the shareholders.
Despite Rs1.071 billion provisioned against advances, the net interest income for the quarter stood at Rs19.023 billion as compared to Rs17.665 billion in the corresponding quarter last year.
HBL’s non-interest income surged 75 percent to Rs10.316 billion owing to twofold increase in fee, commission along with Rs3.6 billion capital gains in June 2015 as compared to Rs5.883 billion in the corresponding quarter last year.
For the half-year ended June 30, 2015, the bank’s profit-after-tax stood at Rs17.155 billion and EPS of Rs11.34 as compared to the profit of Rs14.589 billion and EPS of Rs9.88 during the same period last year.
Average lending rates dropped to 10.20 percent in 1H2015 vis-à-vis 1H2014’s 11.14 percent, whereas deposit rates fell by 60bps to 4.56 percent, resulting in 1H2015 spreads to average at 5.76 percent.