KARACHI: The Board of Directors of Dubai Islamic Bank Pakistan Limited (DIBPL) in its meeting held in Karachi on January 29, 2018 approved the audited financial statements of the Bank for the year ended on December 31, 2017.

DIBPL has maintained its growth momentum during the year and recorded historic results for the year ended December 2017. Profit before tax increased to Rs. 2,564 million as compared to Rs. 1,371 million last year, a growth of 87 percent despite intense competition in the banking industry.

The Bank has increased its balance sheet footing through impressive growth in its investments and financing portfolio. The Bank has also recorded robust growth in deposits compared to last year. The Bank recorded Earnings per Share (EPS) of Rs. 1.41.

The major contributors were net spread earned, which grew by 26.62 percent while fee and commission income increased by 20.89 percent, compared to last year. This has been achieved through strong growth in commercial and consumer financing portfolio yielding higher returns, and further strengthening of non-funded income streams from trade finance, foreign exchange and corporate advisory services. Whereas, the provisioning cost and operating expenses growth has also been effectively contained.

Another significant achievement is the reduction in the Bank’s ratio of non-performing financings to total financing (NPL ratio) that now stands at 1.9 percent, down from 2.52 percent in 2016 as a result of recoveries made by the Bank during 2017 which highlights quality of Bank’s portfolio.

Considering the sound performance indicators of the Bank, the JCR-VIS Credit Rating Company Limited has assigned the Bank medium to long-term rating to ‘AA-’ (AA minus) from ‘A+’ (A-Plus) and the short term rating as ‘A-1’ (A one) while the outlook has been assigned as “Stable.”

The Board recorded its appreciation to the CEO and the management team of DIBPL on the impressive results of the Bank.—PR