Habib Bank profit rises to Rs 46.4 billion

HBL has declared a consolidated profit before tax of Rs 46.4 billion for 9M'21, a growth of 8% over the same period last year. Profit after tax increased to Rs 27.0 billion, with earnings per share increasing to Rs18.21 in 9M'21 compared to Rs 17.17 in 9M'20.

The Bank declared an Interim Cash Dividend for the third quarter ended September 30, 2021, at Rs 1.75/- per share i.e. 17.5%. This is in addition to the Interim Cash Dividend already paid at Rs 3.5/- per share i.e. 35%.

HBL has the industry's largest balance sheet which further increased to Rs 4.1 trillion, in the nine months of 2021. This was achieved by continued strong growth in deposits, which increased by more than Rs 330 billion (12%) during 2021 to Rs 3.2 trillion; the Bank's industry-leading current account book exceeded Rs 1.1 trillion.

With HBL ready and willing to lend in support of economic growth, domestic advances continued to increase, rising by 9.0% over Dec'20 and surpassing Rs 1.1 trillion. Our flagship Consumer assets have continued their strong, well-managed growth and crossed Rs 95 billion in the current quarter. With international franchises on a growth trajectory, HBL's total advances increased by 12% over Dec'20, to Rs 1.4 trillion.

HBL registered total revenue of Rs 123 billion as the strong growth in fees and balance sheet volumes were able to offset the impact of industrywide margin compression.

The Bank recorded a net interest income of Rs 97.2 billion, driven by a Rs 400 billion growth in average balance sheet volumes. Fee income showed an impressive growth of 34% to Rs 17.9 billion, driven by a stellar performance from the Cards and Consumer businesses and strong growth in domestic trade volumes which surpassed the $10 billion mark for the first time.

Total expenses remained flat year on year despite the Bank's continued investment in technology and digital initiatives and in contributing to Pakistan's economic growth and development. The Bank's cost to income ratio (excluding capital gains) thus reduced from 60.9% in 9M'20 to 57.7% in 9M'21.

Commenting on the Bank's performance, Muhammad Aurangzeb, President & CEO - HBL said, "HBL maintained its robust performance across all business fronts and continued its strong business momentum in Q3 2021. The period saw significant gains, owing to the Bank's strong core banking performance, transformative digitalization efforts, strategic partnerships, and groundbreaking interventions on financial inclusion and development finance initiatives."

The Bank remains a market leader in personal loans, merchant acquiring, credit cards, and debit cards. The throughput of both debit and credit cards was over Rs 129 billion, up by 63% over the same period last year. The Bank's merchant acquiring business has the largest Point of Sale network of 35,000 terminals in the country and recorded a growth of 50% by managing a throughput of Rs 125 billion which is the highest in the country.

The Bank's SME and Rural Banking businesses have an advanced portfolio of Rs 58 billion and Rs 38 billion respectively which is a testament to the Bank's commitment to serving the real sectors of the economy. SME trade volume recorded a YoY growth of 23%. Supporting the country's agenda to promote exports, the export trade volume recorded YOY growth of 28%.