BankMuscat announces 9 months preliminary results

BankMuscat announces preliminary results for 9 months ended 30 September 2013

YTD Net Profit at RO 102.51 million

BankMuscat, the flagship financial institution in the Sultanate, announced its preliminary results for the nine months ended 30th September 2013. The Bank posted net profit of RO 102.51 million for the period compared to RO 104.19 million reported during the same period in 2012. An exceptional operating loss provision of RO 15 million relating to the Prepaid Travel Card fraud incident (as disclosed to the market on February 25, 2013 and February 26, 2013) was considered in Q1 2013. The Bank is working on various channels to recover the loss arising from this exposure and will update the market on any material developments in this regard.

The key highlights of the results for the period are as follows:

1) Net interest income from conventional banking stood at RO 163.83 million for nine months of 2013 compared to RO 168.28 million for the same period of 2012, a decrease of 2.6 per cent.

2) Net Income from Islamic Financing for nine months of 2013 stood at RO. 8.1 million.

3) Non-interest income at RO 78.16 million was higher by about 16 per cent compared to RO 67.43 million for the nine months ended 30 September 2012.

4) Operating expenses for the nine-month period ended 30 September 2013 at RO 123.02 million as compared to RO 98.93 for the same period in 2012, increase of 24.3 per cent (including prepaid travel card operating loss provision). Excluding the operating loss provision as stated above, bank's operating expenses would have increased by 9.2% as compared to the same period in 2012.

5) Impairment for credit losses for the nine-month period in 2013 was RO 26.42 million as against RO 40.87 million for the same period in 2012.

6) Net Loans and advances increased by 7 per cent to RO 5,741 million as against RO 5,359 million as at 30 September 2012.

7) Customer deposits, including CDs, increased by 11.5 per cent to RO 5,527 million as against RO 4,955 million as at 30 September 2012.

8) Islamic financing receivables amounted to RO 247 million and Islamic Banking customer deposits amounted to RO 124 million as of 30 September 2013.

The full results of the nine-month period ended 30 September 2013 along with complete set of financial statements, will be released after the approval of the Board of directors of the Bank at its meeting scheduled later during October 2013.