Amãna Bank ended 2019 financial year on a strong footing to record a resilient performance, whilst rewarding shareholders with an above-market dividend yield, despite the headwinds the country and its economy had to go through.
The Bank’s deposits recorded an outstanding growth of 16% to end at Rs 71.6 billion from Rs 61.7 billion during the year, which was double the industry growth of 8%. This growth is a clear indication of the growing customer confidence and demand for the Bank’s people-friendly banking model. Such growth was further enabled by the Bank significantly expanding its reach through strategic partnerships and collaborations, which resulted in the deposit network increasing from 50 to over 750 points.
This move certainly bodes well for the Bank in its journey towards reaching out to provide its services to all citizens of the country.
The Bank continued to grow its Total Asset base, amidst various challenges, to record a 12% growth to close at Rs 86.6 billion from Rs 77.2 billion. Customer Advances too posted a steady growth of 9%, in the backdrop of industry credit growth being 5%, to close at Rs 57.7 billion from Rs 52.9 billion. Having been able to maintain its profit momentum, the Bank rewarded its shareholders once again in 2019 with a dividend payment of Rs 200.1 million, which translated to a dividend yield of 3.5%, higher than the market dividend yield of 3.2% for 2019.
Financing Income recorded a sound growth of 12% to reach Rs 7.7 billion from Rs 6.9 billion in 2018.
This was after absorbing the effects of the downward pressure on market financing rates especially in the last quarter. Net Financing Income however, declined to Rs 3.2 billion from Rs 3.4 billion due to the higher growth in customer deposits and the resultant increase in financing cost.
The Bank continued to enjoy a CASA ratio of40%, notably higher than the industry, which places the Bank at an advantageous position.
This helped in curtailing the dilution to Bank’s financing margin, lowering it to only 3.9% from 4.4%, which however continues to be higher than the industry margin of 3.6%.
