SIB profit up, proposes 8 per cent cash dividend

SHARJAH: Sharjah Islamic Bank has reported an increase in its operating profits before provisions by 8.7 per cent, amounting to Dhs697.7 million, compared to Dhs642.1 million for the same period last year.

The exceptional circumstances that the world is going through, the Bank has been prudent to hedge the potential risks owing to these difficult economic conditions and has made a provision on its financial assets amounting to Dhs255.8 million, compared to Dhs96.8 million from the last year. As a result, the net profits of the Bank decreased to Dhs405.8 million compared to Dhs545.5 million for the year 2019, a decline of 25.6 per cent.

The Board of Directors proposes 8 per cent cash dividend of the paid-up capital.

The balance sheet reflects the Bank’s total assets of Dhs53.6 billion at the end of December 2020, growing by 15.5 per cent compared to Dhs46.4 billion at the end of 2019.

The bank continued to diversify its financing facilities portfolio in different economic sectors in accordance with its prudent credit policy that takes into consideration the effects of the prevailing market volatility and instability in global and regional capital market on banking operations. Financing facilities reached Dhs29.3 billion, an increase of Dhs4.1 billion or 16.4 per cent compared to Dhs25.1 billion last year.

SIB successfully atracted more deposits during the period as customer deposits increased by 23 per cent to reach Dhs33.6 billion compared to Dhs27.3 billion by December 31, 2019.