Egyptian bank EFG-Hermes plunged to a net loss of $48 million last year, hit by one-off charges including a writedown in the value of certain investments.

The bank, active both in investment and commercial banking, said yesterday it made a net loss of 335 million Egyptian pounds ($48m), compared with a profit of 211 million pounds in 2012. Excluding the charges, normalised net profit doubled from 2012, it said.

EFG-Hermes said the one-off charges totalled 761m pounds, including 616m in the fourth quarter alone.

Hanzada Nessim, the head of investor relations, said the impairment charges related to acquisitions which the bank had previously made at home and in markets such as Kuwait and Oman.

Charges also related to changes in the "fair value" of investment property in Dubai and one-off operating expenses booked during the year, Nessim said.

In the fourth quarter, EFG-Hermes made a net operating profit of 163m pounds, up 302 per cent from a year earlier, the bank said.-Reuters