• Consolidated net profit attributable to the shareholders of the parent for the first quarter of the year 2019 was US$55 million, 4% higher compared to US$53 million reported for the same period last year.​
• Profit before Taxation was US$76 million, 5% lower compared to US$80 million reported for the first quarter of 2018 and was impacted by FX depreciation, mainly a 14% devaluation year on year of Brazilian Real (“BRL”) against USD. 
• On a headline basis, total operating income was US$215 million against US$211 million reported for the same period last year. Underlying growth of 8% in local currency terms was reduced to 2% by FX depreciation of the Brazilian Real (“BRL”) against USD in particular. 
• The Earnings per share remained steady at US$0.02, similar to the first quarter of the previous year.
• Operating expenses were at US$128 million, US$9 million or 8% higher than the same period of last year, due to inflation and continuing investment into strategic initiatives to transform and reshape the Bank.
• Impairment charges were at US$11 million compared with the US$12 million reported for the same period last year and are largely in line with our expectations for cost of credit, also reflecting proactive and conservative credit management.
• Ratio of impaired loans to gross loans remained at 2018 year-end levels of 4.0%, but normalises to 3.1%, when long-standing legacy fully provided loans are adjusted for. Provisions coverage against the aggregate impaired exposures remained comfortable at 97%.
• Tax charge is US$10 million, compared to the charge of US$14 million for the previous year’s first quarter, driven by lower pre-tax profit and FX impact. 
• Total comprehensive income attributable to the shareholders of the parent was US$89 million compared to US$50 million reported for the first quarter of 2018, primarily due to fair value movement in FVOCI debt instruments.

• Total assets stood at US$29.9 billion at the end of the first quarter of 2019, compared to US$29.5 billion at the 2018 year-end, whilst loans and advances remained constant at $14.9 billion, reflecting our continuing emphasis on prudent use of balance sheet.   
• Deposits at the end of the period were at US$21.2 billion, $0.5billion higher than the US$20.7 billion at 2018 year-end, with main growth being in customer deposits $17.2 billion up from $16.4 billion. 
• Liquidity ratios were strong, with LCR and NSFR on a Basel III basis exceeding 100% with comfortable buffer and liquid assets to deposits ratio healthy at 58%.
• Capital Ratios strong: Tier 1 16.6% and total capital adequacy ratio (CAR) 17.3%.

 ​​​​​​ 

  

 Mr. Saddek Omar El Kaber