The Board of Directors of Sindh Bank in their meeting held on October 18, 2016considered and approved the accounts of the Bank for the nine months ended September 30, 2016. During the period under review, the Bank maintained satisfactory growth in deposits, advances and profitability. Deposits increased to Rs 102.76 billion as on September 30, 2016 compared to Rs 84.08 billion as on December 31, 2015, registering an increase of 22.2 %.
Gross Advances increased to Rs 51.76 billion compared to Rs 46.71 billion as on December 31, 2015, increasing by 10.8%. Total number of customer Accounts stood at 399,494 as against 358,084 at December 31, 2015 ie an addition of over 41 thousand accounts during the period ie increase of 11.6%. Pre-tax profit for the nine months ended September 30, 2016 stood at Rs 1,776 million as against Rs 1,510 million earned in the corresponding period of 2015, thereby increasing by17.6 %.
Agricultural credit disbursement target of Rs 3,000 million was assigned by SBP for 2015-2016, against which an amount of Rs 3,181 million was disbursed, thus exceeding the target by 6 percent. The Bank has been allocated an increased target of approximately 27% for 2016-17 amounting to Rs 3,800 million.
Process for listing of the Bank on the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSE) is at an advanced stage as approval for the prospectus has been received from PSX and SECP. We expect the entire process for listing to be completed by the end of the year. JCR-VIS Credit Rating Company has reaffirmed the Bank's medium to long term entity rating of 'AA' (Double A) and short term rating of 'A-1+' (A One Plus), with a stable outlook.-PR