Banque du Caire's (BdC) net profits jumped 60 percent year on year to record 4 billion Egyptian pounds in 2019, according to its financial results. The lender's net profits after taxes stood at nearly 4 billion pounds during 2019, compared to 2.5 billion pounds a year earlier. The bank's assets grew by 10 percent year-on-year to 183.4 billion pounds in 2019, supported by a 20 percent hike in loan portfolio which reached 79.2 billion pounds. Meanwhile, the deposit portfolio increased by 20 billion pounds or 15 percent to 151 billion pounds in 2019. The bank's micro-, small-, and medium-sized enterprise (MSME) funding portfolio skyrocketed by 90 percent to 13.7 billion pounds, with micro funding reaching 7 billion pounds at the end of 2019. In addition, the state-run bank's mortgage portfolio rose by 25 percent to 2.1 billion pounds last year from 1.7 billion pounds in 2018. It is noteworthy that during the first nine months of 2019, Banque du Caire's net profits after taxes jumped to 3 billion pounds, compared to 1.7 billion pounds in the year-ago period. The bank is on track to sell a 45 percent stake to investors in the first IPO under the state privatization program, which was announced back in 2018. BdC's shares could start trading on the EGX by the middle of April,
