Sharjah Islamic Bank (SIB) has seen its net profit jump 26.6% to record AED650.9 million ($177 million) for the year ending December 31, 2022, compared to AED514.1 million in the same period of 2021.

 

SIB’s board of directors has proposed a cash dividend of 10%, and 5% bonus share provided that it is put to a vote in the coming general assembly meeting, aWAM report said.

 

The bank also reported an increase in operating profits by 17.4%, reaching AED998.3 million in 2022, compared to AED850.7 million in the previous year.

 

Flexible strategy

SIB adopted a more adaptive and flexible strategy to face 2022 challenges. The continuous rise in global interest rates and inflation rates in addition to fierce competition in the business environment, our strategy led to strong financial results which confirming the bank’s success in efficiently and competently dealing with difficult circumstances, reflected on the bank’s performance indicators.

 

The growth in the bank's net profit indicates a strong performance in all aspects of the bank's business. As a result, the net income from financing and investment products increased by 10.9%, or AED119.1 million, to reach AED1.2 billion in 2022, compared to AED1.1 billion in 2021. While net fees, commissions and other income increased by 18.8% to reach AED395.8 million, compared to AED333.2 million in 2021.

 

Though general and administrative expenses increased slightly, by 5.9% compared to the previous year, amounting to AED610.8 million in 2022 and AED576.8 million in 2021, efficiency ratio improved to 37.9% compared to 40.4% last year, as a result of the effective cost control policies.

 

Building on provisions

Owing to operational challenges across the globe, SIB continues to build on provisions. SIB reported AED313.8 million in the net impairment provisions, which is an increase by AED69.2 million, compared to AED244.5 million last year.

 

The bank also saw an increase in total assets by 7.6% to reach AED59.1 billion by 31st December 2022, compared to AED55.0 billion in 2021.

 

The bank continues to maintain a strong liquidity ratio to enhance the financial position of the SIB, as it reached AED14.1 billion, or 23.9% to the total assets. Financing-to-deposits ratio reached 77.6%, which reflects the strength and stabile of liquidity position of the bank.

 

Diversification

SIB continues to diversify its financing portfolio in various economic sectors and follows a wise credit policy that takes into account all developments associated with the Corona pandemic and its impact on financial markets, as the total customer financings stood at AED30.7 billion, an increase by 5.7% compared to AED29.0 billion last year.

 

The bank was able to attract a larger volume of customer deposits during the year of 2022, as deposits increased by 2.7% or AED1.0 billion, bringing the total deposits to AED39.5 billion, compared to AED38.5 billion in 2021.

 

SIB has a strong capital base, as the total shareholders’ equity at the end of December 2022 amounted to AED7.6 billion, which represents 12.9% of the bank’s total assets. Thus, the SIB maintains a high capital adequacy ratio in accordance with Basel III at 19.1%.

 

The bank's rate of return on average assets and average equity have increased significantly, at 1.14% and 8.49%, respectively, compared to 0.95% and 6.7% at the end of the previous year.-- TradeArabia News Service