Staff Reporter
Karachi
The Bank’s pre-tax profit and post-tax profit stood at Rs. 4.757 billion and Rs. 2.821 billion respectively, translating into an EPS of Rs. 1.59 per share (Mar 2019: Rs. 1.76).
The profit for the first quarter of 2020 depicted a decline of 9.6% versus the same period last year. This is mainly due to the prudent approach adopted towards provisioning against both the credit portfolio and investment impairment.
On the credit front, certain loans have been subjectively downgraded, while full impairment charge has been taken on equity book instead of availing the relaxation allowed by SBP of deferring charge over the year.
On the revenue front, net markup income and non-markup income showed a combined growth of 7.7% with a strong contribution from FX income of Rs. 1.056 billion.
Last year net Markup income included recovery of suspended markup on a non-performing loan. Non Markup income was impacted by bearish stock market sentiments amid coronavirus fear.
