Cairo – Mubasher: Pharos Research issued a report on Crédit Agricole Egypt (CAE), saying that the lender’s sizable bottom line advancement is driven by a number of factors, namely the 29.2% y/y increase in net interest income, a 7.7% y/y increase in net fee and commission income, recovery in net trading income y/y and slight contraction in provisions booked during the quarter from 2014’s comparable period.
The bank’s ‘selective’ strategy seems to be paying off as is reflective in the bank’s aforementioned income statement figures, that are bolstered by equally strong improvements in balance sheet items.
The bank targets to grow its gross lending portfolio by cc 10% y/y in 2015 and beyond while growth in deposits will continue to lag slightly behind, said the research firm.
Growth in the bank’s lending was primarily driven by its retail tranche which grew by 4.8% q/q while its corporate counterpart witnessed a negligible quarterly decline of 0.7%, said Pharos.
It added that CAE’s exposure to the Egyptian sovereign remained conservatively capped, versus larger market peers, and amounted to EGP cc 9.0 billion, only 27.2% of the balance sheet and versus the sector’s average of 44.5%.
The bank’s consolidated net profit for the first nine months of 2015 rose by 64% year-on-year to EGP 748.3 million, from EGP 457.2 million in the prior-year period.
Pharos earlier expected the bank’s nine-month profit to reach EGP 718 million.
