Finance & Capital Market

SABB's Q1 net profit hits $258.4m, assets up 2.2pc

The Saudi British Bank (SABB) has recorded a net profit after Zakat and income tax of SR970 million ($258.4 million) for the three months ended March 1, 2021. 
 
This is a decrease of SR1 million or 0.1% compared to SR971 million for the same period in 2020, said the statement from the bank. 
 
Announcing the results, SABB said the operating income for the three months ended March 31, fell 15% to of SR2.01 billion from SR2.37 billion over last year.
 
Loans and advances stood at SR156.7 billion as of March 31, 2021, thus registering an increase of SR1.5 billion, or 1%, from SR155.2 billion last year.
 
SABB pointed out that customers’ deposits hit SR183.7 billion, down 2.4% over last year.
 
Investments for the three-month period stood at SR63.2 billion, up 4.4% from SR60.5 billion last year.
 
The total assets surged to SR271.6 billion, up 2.2% from SR265.7 billion. Earnings per share is SR0.47 remained stable compared to the corresponding period of the previous year.
 
Commenting on the results, Chairperson Lubna Suliman Olayan said: "As the first quarter of 2021 drew to a close, we completed the last major milestone of the process of integrating SABB and Alawwal Bank - ‘Customer Day 1’ - the migration of our retail customers previously served through the Alawwal bank channels onto SABB’s infrastructure."
 
"So from March 14 onwards all of our customers - retail, corporate and institutional - are enjoying the same single, seamless quality experience, underpinned by SABB’s systems and infrastructure," he noted.
 
According to her, SABB’s financial performance remained resilient during a period of continued economic challenges posed by the persistence of the global pandemic and heightened competition domestically. 
 
"Despite these challenges, our lending to customers grew, our funding, liquidity and capital levels remained strong, our costs stayed well controlled, and our cost of credit risk remained low," remarked Olayan.
 
"Having delivered a positive return for shareholders in the first quarter, we shall continue to build and remain fully focused on executing our strategic plan and supporting the national economic transformation goals of Vision 2030," she added.-TradeArabia News Service