(MENAFN- Muscat Daily) Bank Sohar reported a 14.1 per cent fall in net profit for the six-month period ended June 30 2015. Net profit fell to RO13.87mn in the first half of this year from RO16.15mn in the corresponding period last year
Initial numbers disclosed to the Muscat Securities Market (MSM) on Monday show that the bank's net profit from conventional banking dropped by 16.5 per cent to RO13.57 while its Islamic banking window posted a net profit of RO303000 against net loss of RO110000 in the first half of last year.
Operating income decreased by 2.74 per cent to RO34.3mn from RO35.26mn while operating expenses rose 7.33 per cent to RO16.08mn.
Bank Sohar's loan book grew 15.51 per cent as net loans and advances rose to RO1.58bn from RO1.37bn a year earlier. Customer deposits increased 15.97 per cent to RO1.56bn from RO1.35bn.
Arafat al Asad vice president of asset management at National Securities said on a quarterly basis the bank has shown improvement in the first two quarters of this year.
'Net profit declined on a year-on-year basis but on a sequential basis it came in 10.6 per cent higher in the second quarter. The bank posted good growth in loans as well. Bank Sohar's lending policy is not as conservative as other banks and we expect the bank to do well for the full year 2015.'
Bank Sohar's price to earnings (PE) ratio Asad said is still attractive from an investment point of view.
Bank Sohar recorded a 9.75 per cent growth in total assets to RO2.08bn.
In a research note Al Maha Financial Services said that Bank Sohar's credit growth accelerated in the second quarter after the modest growth witnessed in the previous two quarters. It also said that the bank's Islamic banking operations started to contribute positively to the overall bottom-line during the current year.
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