Dubai: Bank of Sharjah Group has reported a net profit of Dh176 million for full year 2020 according to its unaudited results, up 136 per cent compared to a net loss of Dh488 million reported in 2019.
Last year’s losses were related provisions made on account of impairments of its fully owned Lebanese Subsidiary, Emirates Lebanon Bank SAL (ELBank).
Banks’ consolidated operating income improved substantially by 470 per cent in 2020 Dh548 million from a net operating loss of Dh148 million in 2019.
Balance sheet
Balance sheet posted a healthy growth with total assets growing 14 per cent year on year to Dh36 billion compared to Dh31.69 billion on 2019.
While loans and advances increased by 9 per cent to Dh19.28 billion from Dh17.73 billion in 2019, customers’ deposits increased 11 per cent year on year to Dh23.69 billion.
BoS reported a strong year on year gain in net interest income by 14 per cent in 2020 to Dh473 million and non-interest income by 303 per cent to Dh597 million. The bank managed to keep operating costs in check with a small increase of 3 per cent year on year.
Turnaround
The bank for the first time in its history reported a consolidated net loss in 2019 arising from provisions made in Lebanon. Despite the losses in Lebanese subsidiary, the bank’s UAE operations continued to generate solid profits in its UAE operations in 2019 and 2020.
While the final audited results for 2020 are awaited, no major spike in provisions for EL Bank as the Group had taken huge provisions on expected credit losses last year with additional provisions in Q3 as a result of the massive explosion in Beirut on August 4, 2020.
