Askari Bank (AKBL) reported half-year earnings of Rs.12.157 billion (profit before tax), representing a rise YoY of 80% due to robust performance by all business sectors.
Profit after tax was recorded as Rs.6.313b representing a rise of 53% YoY, less than PBT growth largely due to a remarkable increase in income tax charges on the banking industry as per notification by the federal government in the recent budget.
However, strong growth across major income sources helped to improve overall revenue by 11% YoY to Rs.23 billion.
Even after the opening of 23 new branches and significant inflation, operational costs continued to reduce, falling by 3% YoY. This shows that several cost-reduction strategies were successfully put into practice, and it also ranked AKBL’s cost-to-income ratio among the best for the current time.
The South and Central areas are the focus of AKBL’s goal to increase market share for retail business, especially retail deposit and current accounts.
The plan is working well, as seen by the growth of current accounts from Rs 355 billion to Rs 1.085 trillion in total deposits. During the past six months, total assets increased by 23%, reaching Rs. 1.54 trillion (38% YoY).
CASA (Current and Savings Accounts), however, saw an improvement, rising to 32.7% from 82% in June of 22 to 80% in December of 21. While doing so, the bank continued to support all facets of the economy, with a focus on lending to the trade and private sectors.
Against the loan portfolio, however, there was a 14% growth from December 21 to Rs. 578 billion (26% YoY). The entity rating given to AKBL is “AA+” (Double A Plus), with a stable outlook.
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