The Board of Directors of Soneri Bank Limited met in Karachi under the Chairmanship of Alauddin Feerasta, on Tuesday to review the performance of the Bank and approved the financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2017. Bank has posted profit before tax of Rs 2,830.97 million and profit after tax of Rs 1,643.33 million for the year ended 31 December 2017. This translates into earnings per share of Rs 1.4906 (31 December 2016: Rs 1.7042).

The variance in earnings mainly caused by the low interest rate environment was partially offset by volumetric growth in the balance sheet and an increase in trade volumes drove our non-markup income up compared to 2016. The Board of Directors has also announced final cash dividend for the year ended 31 December2017 @ 7.50 percent ie Re 0.75 per share.

The Bank has shown re-enforcement in all core areas of the Bank's operations. Deposits increased by 8.30 percent, while current deposits grew by 22.47 percent over 2016. Net advances recorded a growth of 31.11 percent over 2016. Bank's net assets (including surplus) amounted to Rs 18.50 billion as at 31 December 2017.

Bank adequately meets the SBP Basel-III requirements and continues to maintain a low NPL ratio while building efforts on securing further recoveries.-PR

Copyright Business Recorder, 2018