KARACHI: The Board of Directors of Soneri Bank Limited, in their 192nd meeting held in Lahore on 26th April 2022, approved the Bank’s condensed interim financial statements for the quarter ended 31 March 2022.

The Bank posted Profit Before Tax (PBT) of Rs917 million and Profit After Tax (PAT) of Rs543 million for the quarter ended March 2022, as compared to Rs1,276 million and Rs782 million respectively in the same period last year.

The Bank’s EPS was recorded at Re0.4921 per share for the current reporting quarter, as compared to Re0.7092 for the comparative prior period.

The Bank’s Net Interest income for the quarter improved to Rs2,879 million, growing by 5.84 percent against Rs2,720 million reported for the same period last year. Non-interest income for the period was reported at Rs841 million as against Rs961 million for the comparative prior period.

Growth in expenses was restricted at 10.41 percent as compared to the prior period with Non mark-up expenses reported at Rs2,791 million for the current quarter.

Net investments witnessed a volumetric increase of Rs33,642 million or 10.27 percent from the year-end balance of Rs327,425 million, ending at Rs361,067 million as at 31 March 2022.

Bank’s Deposits registered a decline of 10.67 percent when compared to 31 December 2021, ending at Rs360,034 million at 31 March 2022, as the Bank’s focus remained on strengthening the CASA mix. Period end CASA mix improved to 73.73 percent as against 69.80 percent at 31 December 2021. More importantly, the Bank’s CA mix improved to 33.07 percent in March 2022 as against 27.17 percent at December 2021, with period end Current Accounts at Rs119,060 million at 31 March 2022 as against Rs109,494 million at the year end.

The Bank’s period end borrowings indicate an increase of Rs81.081 billion when compared to December 2021, with funds deployed in government securities.

The Bank’s net advances portfolio stood at Rs160,827 million as at 31 March 2022, 2.82 percent lower than the year end 2021 level, the Bank’s Non-performing loans to total Advances ratio stands at 5.94 percent (December 2021: 5.95 percent), with specific coverage at 78.17 percent (December 2021: 76.51 percent).

The Board of Directors recognized and appreciated the efforts of the management in meeting most Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) amidst challenging times. The Board expects that with continued efforts, the Bank would be able to deliver on all KPIs in the days to come, whilst satisfactorily fulfilling the banking needs of our customers.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022