ADIB’s 9-month net profit surges 43% to Dh1.6 billion

Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB) on Sunday disclosed that its nine-month net profit surged 43 per cent to Dh1.6 billion this year, reflecting a strong underlying performance across the business segments despite challenging environment in the wake of Covid-19 pandemic.

The Abu Dhabi-listed financial institution said revenue also climbed four per cent to Dh4.09 billion during January-September 2021 compared to Dh3.93 billion in the same period last year.

Jawaan Awaidah Al Khaili, chairman of ADIB, said the recovery from the pandemic continues to drive positive consumer sentiment as reflected in our strong performance across all business lines.

“We continued to follow a positive growth trajectory achieving a 43 per cent year-on-year growth in net profit driven by a four per cent growth in revenues. ADIB’s financial performance reflects the con-tinued success of our growth strategy and our ability to adapt to a challenging environment,” Al Khaili said in a statement to Khaleej Times.

The bank, which now serves over one million customers across multiple client segments, also maintained cost discipline in line with the ongoing investment in digital initiatives with expenses declining eight per cent and cost to income ratio improving 535 basis points to 42.2 per cent. Total assets also rose four per cent due to six per cent growth in deposits and two per cent increase in gross customer financing.

The bank added 93,476 new customers in the 12 months period ended September 30, 2021. It’s non-performing assets increased to Dh8 billion compared to Dh7.8 billion, reflecting a challenging operating environment.

The improving economic outlook resulted in lower net impairment charges of 21 per cent to Dh751 million, compared to Dh954.1 million representing an annualized cost of risk of 110 basis points com-pared to 127 basis. However, impairment charges increased by 57 per cent during the third quarter 2021 compared to the same period last year due to single name provisions taken on NMC Health Group and its associated companies.

“Looking ahead and despite ongoing uncertainties, we believe that the UAE economy has the poten-tial to have extremely robust, multi-year growth supported by positive consumer sentiment around the end of the pandemic,” Al Khaili said.

— muzaffarrizvi@khaleejtimes.com