The performance indicators of Attijariwafa Bank Egypt revealed that the bank's net profit exceeded EGP 1.1bn at the end of 2017, compared to EGP 663m in 2016, marking a growth of 68%. The bank attributed this increase to a rise in net return on income worth EGP 450m, accounting for 28%, due to a higher profit margin resulting from higher interest rates on its investments portfolio, as well as increasing the size of the portfolio of total customer loans worth EGP 2.7bn, up by 32%, while deposits grew by 18%, reaching EGP 3.2bn. Net income from fees and commissions increased by 14% to reach EGP 44m. According to the bank's Managing Director Hala Sakr, Attijariwafa has succeeded in implementing its development strategy in all sectors. The bank's team managed to increase the magnitude of its business and the institutional sector was able to follow the strategic growth policy, which boosted the clients' loans portfolio, after intensified participation in joint loans with the leading banks in these types of loans, as well as growth in development projects, in line with state policies. Sakr added that the treasury sector has been able to increase its resources of foreign currencies by 100% compared to 2016, through signing a collaboration protocol with seven Egyptian foreign exchange companies, which led to doubling the sales and trading of foreign currencies. The managing director added that the retail banking sector has also attracted new segments of customers, about 15,000 new clients, which increased its deposits portfolio through offering competitive interest rates. "Capital adequacy scored 22% at the end of 2017, up from 16% in 2016, which confirms the solidity of the bank's capital base and its ability to grow in various business sectors and its readiness to apply International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) 9," Sakr said. She added that this performance has had a significant impact on the added value of shareholders, as the average profit on equity increased to record 28% at the end of 2017, up from 20% in 2016. Average return on assets also scored 4.3%, up from 3% in 2016, while maintaining prudent risk management and a strict control environment. According to Mohamed Sherif, executive board member and head of the financial and strategic transformation sectors of Attijariwafa Bank Egypt, the budget at the end of 2017 reached EGP 27.9bn, up 18%, which includes EGP 11.1bn in loans and credit facilities, which is up 32%, as well as EGP 21.6bn of deposits, up by 18%. He added that the volume of investment in treasury bills amounted to EGP 4.9bn, with EGP 3.2bn in investments available for sale. He explained that the bank continues to invest strategically in its infrastructure to move into the future, which led to increasing administrative expenses and operating expenses by 33% to reach EGP 984m at the end of 2017, compared to EGP 739m in 2016. He pointed out that this increase in expenditure is small, taking into account the rate of inflation and devaluation of the local currency in addition to the application of a value added tax at 14%. He added that despite these investments, the average cost of return decreased to reach 39% at the end of last year, compared to 46% in 2016.
