Al Baraka Banking Group first-half profit falls as pandemic provisions soar 345%

Islamic bank Al Baraka posted $47.09 million in half-yearly profit attributable to equity holders, a fall of 16% compared to $56.16 million for the same period last year.

The drop was a result of the Group allocating “a significant increase in precautionary provisions” to offset the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Bahrain-based bank said in a bourse filing on Tuesday (August 11).

“These provisions increased by 345% to reach $127 million during the first half of 2020 compared to with $28 million in the first half of 2019,” said the Group.

Its total operating income rose by 25% to $552.71 million versus $442.34 million in the first-half of 2019.

Total operating expenses went up slightly by 2% to $278.12 million.

BALANCE SHEET

Mudarabah and musharakah financing dropped 33% from the end of 2019 to $2.16 billion.

On the liabilities side, customer deposits were almost flat at $6.26 billion compared to $6.195 billion end-2019.

Total assets nudged down by 1% to $26.13 billion from $26.26 billion at the end of 2019. The Group said it focused on maintaining a large portion of these in liquid assets amid challenges faced during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Al Baraka operates in 17 countries: Jordan, Egypt, Tunisia, Bahrain, Sudan, Turkey, South Africa, Algeria, Pakistan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Morocco and Germany, in addition to two branches in Iraq and two representative offices, in Indonesia and Libya.

Its Middle East business it its biggest earner, bringing in 65.66% of total net income in 2019.

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