Askari Bank (AKBL) disclosed half year earnings (profit before tax) as Rs.12.157 billion, depicting an increase YoY of 80% on the back of strong delivery by all business segments.
Profit after tax reported as Rs.6.313b reflecting an increase of 53% YoY, less than PBT raise primarily because of an extraordinary jump in income tax charges on banking sector as per notification by the the federal government in recent budget.
However, total revenue raised by 11% YoY to Rs.23 billion contributed by vigorous growth across key income streams.
Further operating expenses declined by 3% YoY even after the addition of 23 new branches and high inflation. This reflects an effective implementation of several cost rationalisation initiatives and also placed AKBL cost to income ratio among the best for the ongoing period.
AKBL is moving forward with a strategy to grow market share of retail business, specifically retail deposit and current accounts in the south and central regions.
The positive results of the strategy are reflecting in the current financial results, Rs 355 billion grew to current accounts with Rs.1.085 trillion total deposit.
23% grew on total asset based during the six months to Rs.1.54 trillion (38% YoY).
However, CASA (Current and saving accounts) improved to 32.7% increasing from 80% in December’21 to 82% in June ’22.
While, the bank continued to serve all sectors of the economy specifically lending to private sector and trade business.
Whereas, 14% increased over December ‘21 to Rs.578 billion (26% YoY) against loan portfolio.
AKBL has been assigned entity rating of ‘AA+’ (Double A Plus) with stable outlook.
