First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB), the UAE’s largest bank and one of the world’s largest and safest financial institutions, reported its financial results for the nine-month period ended 30 September 2019 today.

A solid set of results driven by core revenue momentum  

• Group Net Profit at AED 9.4 Billion, up 4% year-on-year; annualised Earnings per Share (EPS) at AED 1.10, compared to AED 1.07 in the first nine months of 2018
• Third quarter net profit of AED 3.1 Billion, up 3% year-on-year, driven by a 5% increase in operating income
• 9M’19 Group Revenue at AED 15.2 Billion, up 4% year-on-year
• Cost-to-income ratio (ex-integration costs) at industry-leading level of 26.5%
• Cost of risk (CoR) was 49bps compared to 51bps in 9M’18

Strong balance sheet growth reflecting sustained business activity and risk discipline

• Total Assets at AED 788 Billion, up 6% year-to-date, while Risk Weighted Assets (RWA) grew marginally by 1% over the same period
• Loans and advances at AED 378 Billion, up 3% sequentially and 7% from December-end 2018, led by government and public sector lending
• Stable asset quality with Non-performing loans ratio at 3.1% and provision coverage of 109%
• Customer deposits at AED 477 Billion, up 3% sequentially and a 2% increase from December-end 2018
• Strong liquidity ratios and funding profile with September-end 2019 Liquidity Coverage Ratio (LCR) at 146%

Robust capital generation, enhanced risk-adjusted returns

• Common Equity Tier-1 (CET1) ratio strengthened to 14.2%, up from 13.6%, both as of June-end 2019 and September-end 2018
• Annualised Return on Tangible Equity (RoTE) and Return on Risk Weighed Assets (RoRWA) improved year-on-year to 16.7% and 2.55% respectively

To be updated

Commenting on the bank’s performance, Abdulhamid Saeed, Group Chief Executive Officer of FAB, said:

“Our financial results for the third quarter of the year reflect a solid performance characterised by the effective execution of our strategy to drive growth and transformation as we remain firmly on track to unlock our full potential.

Group Net Profit for the first nine months of 2019 grew 4% to AED 9.4 Billion, driven by positive momentum in our Corporate and Personal Banking businesses, as we continue to leverage on our competitive strengths across our global network. Our performance is met with consistent cost and risk discipline, whilst we continue to put our customers first and invest in technology and digital infrastructure to enhance FAB’s overall banking proposition.

Reflecting FAB’s leading role in supporting economic and social development plans in Abu Dhabi and across the UAE, we continued to support the Emirate’s Ghadan 2021 stimulus package by contributing to various programmes.

Internationally, we are on track to implement our strategy in targeted markets, including Saudi Arabia, where we are serving a growing client base and will open a second branch in the city of Khobar shortly.

We are entering the last quarter of 2019 with a robust balance sheet, strong capital and liquidity ratios, stable asset quality, and improved returns. Further emphasising the bank’s strong financial position, we were pleased to see FAB being recognised once again this year as the safest bank in the Middle East, 4th safest in Emerging Markets and 22nd safest amongst commercial banks globally by Global Finance magazine. Despite a more challenging global and regional outlook, we remain on a solid track to achieve a record performance in 2019, and maximise shareholder returns”.  

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