The Board of Directors of HBL reviewed performance of the HBL Group (the Group) and have approved financial statements for the six months ended June 30, 2014. The Group has continued to deliver during 2014 with another strong performance. The fundamentals of the Group remain very strong with growth in balance sheet size, improving core CASA deposits, healthy contribution from both mark-up and non mark-up income, effective risk management and strong capitalization.
Pre-tax and after-tax profits were at Rs 22.1 billion and Rs 14.6 billion respectively for the six months ended June 30, 2014 as against Rs 15.9 billion and Rs 10.5 billion respectively in corresponding period last year. The profit after tax rose by 39 percent, resulting in earnings per share of Rs 9.88 for the six months ended June 30, 2014 (Rs 7.07 last year).
The Group's deposits increased by 3.5 percent to Rs 1.450 trillion as on June 30, 2014 from Rs 1.401 trillion on December 31, 2013. The Bank was successful in delivering an impressive improvement in the deposit mix, with Current Accounts showing a growth of 22.5 percent to Rs 504 billion improving CASA ratio to 76.7 percent as on June 30, 2014 as against 73 percent as on December 31, 2013. Overall deposit growth remained strong despite a well managed reduction of high cost deposits. Overall the balance sheet size grew by 1.5 percent to Rs 1.741 trillion.
Operating income in all areas has shown impressive growth. Net mark up Income increased by 21.8 percent to Rs 31.9 billion (Rs 26.2 billion last year). Improvement in net mark up income can be attributed to change in deposit mix resulting in lower cost of deposits and higher earning on its investment. Non mark up income increased by 41 percent to Rs 11.3 billion for the six months ended June 30, 2014 contributed by increase in all areas including fee & commission, capital gains, income from dealing in foreign currencies and investment income. Provisioning expenses have reduced from Rs 1.1 billion to only Rs 0.2 billion this period. NPLs have declined by 7.5 percent to Rs 51.3 billion as on June 30, 2014. The Board has declared second interim cash dividend of Rs 2.25 per share for the year ending December 31, 2014.-PR