Dubai: Dubai’s Emirates NBD profit hit Dh9 billion for the first nine months of 2022, up 25 per cent from the Dh7.28 billion a year ago, bolstered by gains across its major services. The hike in interest rates too played well on the bank’s numbers, with net interest income at Dh13.23 billion.
The nine-month profit tally is close to what the bank netted for full-year 2021.
Apart from interest rate gains, "Emirates NBD played a leading role in the country’s recent IPOs, enabling new and existing customers to access and trade shares on the Dubai Financial Market," said Hesham Abdulla Qassim Al Qassim, Vice Chairman and Managing Director.
Emirates NBD’s profits jumped 25 per cent y-o-y to Dh9.1 billion for the first nine months, reflecting strong regional economic growth and the success of the Group’s diversified business model.
The bank retains its strength in the retail banking space, with Emirates NBD and Emirates Islamic Bank together claiming a 30 per cent market share of UAE’s debit and credit card spend, and ‘bigger than next three banks combined’. It means processing more than 1 million transactions a day – ‘equivalent to 11 every second’.
Not just the UAE, the bank also cited growth from the Egypt operations, where there was a 50 per cent increase in e-transactions. International revenues made up 40 per cent of the bank’s top-line in the first three quarters.
All of which meant a 25 per cent rise in overall income to Dh22.7 billion, helped by transaction volumes and ‘higher margins from an efficient funding base and higher interest rates’. "New lending increased substantially in both retail and renewed demand for corporate lending," said Shayne Nelson, Group CEO.
These strong results, healthy profitability and positive economic outlook for the region enable us to accelerate our investment for future growth.
Corporate lending
The third-quarter profit was 'exceptionally strong' at Dh3.8 billion, up 51 per cent year-on-year. "Another record quarter for retail lending and customer transactions, together with improving margins, drove income 31 per cent higher y-o-y," said the bank in a statement.
"Liquidity in the UAE banking sector remains healthy, helped by the high oil price," said Patrick Sullivan, Group Chief Financial Officer. "In 2022, we grew CASA balances by Dh18 billion, enabling the Group to benefit from interest rates rises. We expect to finish the year with margins at the top end of guidance and cost of risk within guidance.
We maintained strong income growth momentum, kept a firm control of costs and are benefiting from writebacks and recoveries, reflecting a healthy regional economy.
New corporate lending grew Dh24 billion in the first nine months ‘reflecting increased business optimism and the deposit mix further improved on strong sector liquidity’, the bank said. “Credit quality remains healthy reflecting the region’s strong economy with impairment down 12 per cent.
Dh 721 b
Emirates NBD's assets were up 5% to Dh721 billion
IPO subscriptions
“We are extremely well positioned to accelerate investment in our international and digital capabilities to support further growth. Emirates NBD’s fully digital platform successfully provided an integrated ‘one-stop’ solution for recent IPO subscriptions.”
